9 DEMOCRATIZING THE AI ECONOMY

Since the global financial crisis, numerous debates and discussions have taken place on how to reform the market capitalist system of free trade, globalized financial markets, and privately owned corporations so that it respects the preservation of the natural environment and the welfare of local communities, promotes social equality, and produces not only profits for the few but also social goods for the many. More recently, the Business Roundtable, a business group of more than 200 members, including the chief executives of JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, and General Motors, and of a combined annual revenue of US$7 trillion, published a statement of purpose calling for a significant departure from the dogma that businesses should serve only the owners of capital.
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Companies should “protect the environment” and treat workers with “dignity and respect,” the statement said. Without doubt there is growing awareness in corporate America and elsewhere that Milton Friedman's philosophy of businesses caring only for maximizing value for their shareholders is outdated. We now live in a different world. The threat to life on our planet due to climate change requires corporate leaders to think long term and not just of the next quarterly results. Millennials and younger generations are more sensitive to issues of corporate responsibility and sustainability and often boycott brands seen to be all about healthy balance sheets and little else.
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Moreover, there is considerable pressure for reforming corporate purpose from politicians, especially as corporate profits soar and many companies opt to spend those profits on share buybacks instead of improving worker wages.