So McDonalds is blaming their price gouging

[PatrickforB]

31. In capitalism, corporations like McDonalds run on a legal doctrine that holds shareholder profits above all else.

What this means is that labor costs are routinely cut through automation, through lobbying against any increase in minimum wage, and cutting hours so that even the larger franchises are not required to provide benefits.

They will cut the size and quality of the product as well, but charge the same price.

And they will be responsible, as McDonald's has been, for a lot of deforestation in the Amazon basin in order to 'create' pastureland to raise cattle.

So of course management at McDs will blame workers for their profit gouging, because if they can use the 'outrage' generated among the public over that profit gouging to drive wages back down, then profits can stay the same and they can present miniscule cuts in price and beat their chest about how well they have been 'listening' to their customers.

All without disturbing shareholder profits.

For further knowlege concerning this legal doctrine, reference the late Lynn Stout's book The Myth of Shareholder Value, and the 1919 MI Supreme Court ruling against Henry Ford in favor of the Dodge brothers.

This is why I am always pounding on the need for Congress to legislate a minor change in the rules of corporate governance - if we move from a shareholder is king model to a stakeholder approach, we can force CEOs and other corporate officers to consider the needs of workers, consumers and the environment on an equal basis to shareholder profits.

Think too about the effect this small change would have on truth in news media - almost all of our media outlets are publicly traded corporations, and if we had a stakeholder approach, we could insist in truth in news reporting. Think of what that would do.