Washington Post: Elizabeth Warren’s revolutionary plan to reduce income inequality

Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation last week that could have big consequences for big business.

One of the most ambitious policy ideas in decades, the Accountable Capitalism Act would breathe new life into the movement to restrain corporate power. Warren (D-Mass.) proposes forcing corporate boards to balance the pursuit of profits with the interests of stakeholders like workers, consumers, suppliers, the general public and even the environment. In short, she wants to change the rules by which corporations operate to force them to be socially responsible.

Her rationale: Corporate managers used to believe they had a responsibility to balance the pursuit of shareholder value with the public good, but that changed in the 1980s, when corporations embraced economist Milton Friedman’s doctrine that the only “social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.”

Read the full story on the Washington Post website here.

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