The mass of people now feel powerless to change corporations. Before the public will be prepared to reform the corporate system, we must undo 150 years of corporate brainwashing. We must establish the principle that corporations owe accountability to all stakeholders, because we give corporations life through public chartering, because stakeholders contribute to corporate success no less than financial investors, because corporate actions affect all stakeholders and not only stockholders, and because our public tax dollars bestow valuable special benefits on corporations. Corporate accountability means providing stakeholders with the information they need to make informed decisions in the marketplace. This is, as Adam Smith taught us, a requirement of a free market system.
Corporations can demand all the information they want from employees, customers, and communities.
But we must make our decisions mainly in the dark, with only a fraction of the information needed. The playing field is decidedly unlevel. With full and fair information stakeholders can vote with their pocketbooks and their feet, and so discipline rogue corporations. Too often, unfortunately, those actions take from other stakeholders to give to stockholders, instead of fairly balancing the benefits of corporate success among all the contributors. During the 1970s substantial effort was invested trying to bring about corporate accountability.