It's a discussion because it's true. In many countries, including the US and the UK it is illegal for a board of directors to not do whatever it takes to maximi

It's a discussion because it's true. In many countries, including the US and the UK it is illegal for a board of directors to not do whatever it takes to maximize shareholder value. The implications of that are particularly important when, as is currently happening in the US, there's a discussion of the role of government in things like health care. Basically: In a lot of cases it's illegal for a company to do "the right thing" if that right thing looses the company money, but isn't explicitly illegal. See pre-existing conditions. One thing that does fall out of this that is rather counter intuitive and the Ron Paul's of this world don't like to hear it is that quite often, big companies are lobbying for stricter regulation. The reason is that they may have ethical/marketing problems with doing a certain thing, but can't not do it, as there are other, less scrupulous companies that don't have these problems and thus squeeze them on price..