"The free market is ... terrible at being proactive, it only benefits a company for exploiting a resource until it's gone ..." To the extent that this happens,

"The free market is ... terrible at being proactive, it only benefits a company for exploiting a resource until it's gone ..." To the extent that this happens, it's not unique to a free market economy. The Soviet Union was notable for causing environmental devastation. Theoretically, if real interest rates are sufficiently high, it might be profitable to, for example, over-fish some species to extinction, since the present value of future catches declines exponentially with time, according to the interest rate. However, for the past few decades, real interest rates have been at historically low levels, so it's hard to see this as an explanation for any current short-sighted behaviour.