I think that's a very tech-centric (and specifically FAANG-centric) mindset, most people are not getting RSOs or options and aren't under any impression their f

I think that's a very tech-centric (and specifically FAANG-centric) mindset, most people are not getting RSOs or options and aren't under any impression their fate is entwined with the stock price. on the other hand you are right that the idea of corporations as independent, self-directed profit-seeking entities with no other social responsibilities or responsibilities to their employees etc has finally subsumed us totally. Corporations are living entities, they are are social organisms. Just like a single bee is not (itself) a living organism (cannot reproduce or shelter itself, etc), but rather the bee colony is the life-form there. Corporations are living systems of rules and incentives - memeplexes. Paperclip maximizers already exist, and the outcome we have given them is "stock price goes up". Until something is changed about allowing the existence of unrestrained paperclip maximizers, they will continue to maximize and do their best to eat society and turn it into paperclips.