I agree with much of what you wrote, except that if you don't think business have ALWAYS been running on the principle of "make money and disregard external cos

I agree with much of what you wrote, except that if you don't think business have ALWAYS been running on the principle of "make money and disregard external costs to society/environment/human well-being", that's just rose colored lenses. Even in the pre-USSR-collapse heyday you're referring to, look no further than the tobacco industry. They literally killed people because it was profitable. I think the problems we're seeing today is that the government is just not doing its job (or more charitably, not moving fast enough to keep up) in regulating the industries _before_ the damage is done. And before the entrenched interests of the resulting megabillionaires can just pay the govt to look away for as long as they can milk this cow.