Wayne Winegarden argues that the principles of stakeholder capitalism and ESG actually undermine good corporate governance:
A system that selects winners and losers based on political preferences rather than who best serves consumers is not capitalism, it is crony capitalism. Crony capitalism is an unjust and unsustainable economic system that inevitably harms families — particularly low-income families — who cannot afford the inevitable costs and mandates imposed to ensure the crony capitalists’ preferred outcome is achieved.
Stakeholder capitalism also circumvents (and thus undermines) the democratic process by attempting to make important public-policy decisions through the corporate boardroom rather than, directly or indirectly, through the legislature. It is neither appropriate nor effective to set important social and policy issues for the nation through corporate board meetings. . . .
Read the whole thing here.