> what's at the root of this contradiction? capitalism. > what kind of change could incentivize different behavior? worker ownership. Sorry if that seems te

> what's at the root of this contradiction? capitalism. > what kind of change could incentivize different behavior? worker ownership. Sorry if that seems terse but really this is the root of the problem. Shareholder value is the end goal and shareholders are generally seeking immediate short term profits (as there's little cost to liquidating a share position and moving to a more profitable company/asset instead). If you want to eliminate this problem, you need the shareholders to be the workers. They need to control the company in a meaningful way because while shareholders generally only care about profits, your workers are going to care about continued employment and the stable maximization of wages and benefits (which as a long term target is only pursuable via real long term growth).