You’d think that people would have learned their lesson after years of financial industry gimmickry, corporate tax avoidance and mistreatment of workers.
You’d think they’d get wise when they see companies moving their business off shore and stashing profits overseas. Or when corporations engage in mass layoffs during tough times while paying exorbitant salaries and bonuses to top executives. Or when business interests fight against raising the minimum wage, try to keep out unions or fail to improve unsafe working conditions.
But no. Despite the evidence before their eyes, most people around the world and in the United States still trust business to “do what is right” more than they trust other big institutional sectors.
Nicholas Goldberg served 11 years as editor of the editorial page and is a former editor of the Op-Ed page and Sunday Opinion section.
That’s the key finding in a report by the giant public relations firm Edelman, released earlier this month to coincide with the gathering of the world’s power brokers and tycoons at Davos: People in the 28 countries surveyed say they trust business to do the right thing more than media, government or non-governmental organizations.
They rate business more highly than those other institutions for competency, which might be justifiable. But business also outscores government by 30 points on ethics.
What? How can that be? But it’s true — globally and in the United States, where 55% of respondents said they trust business to...
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