Richard D. Wolff

Capitalists linking their businesses with social causes, progressive or otherwise, is not so new. It has surged often when social critics of capitalism have, largely as a way for corporations to blunt or undermine social criticism. So it is not surprising now, in the wake of a devastating capitalist crash in 2008/9, to see yet another surge in corporations showing off one or another "good" cause they are furthering. In the past this has never lasted very long. That is why breathless journalists today can write as if this were all new and thus a sign of big changes. It isn't. When the pressures of competition or other aspects of how capitalism as a system works impinge on corporations with social "missions," or "commitments" or "values" etc., they drop them quickly because they respect first and foremost what "the bottom line" means: the dominance of profit and competition that trumps (no pun intended) all else.