Yes. But I think that it’s just part of a larger unethical system: the financial system(and it’s incestuous relationship with government). I am pro capitalism, but this is not capitalism. This is corporatism. The whole system is based on growth at any expense to maximize shareholder wealth. Perverse incentives lead to perverse outcomes such as lobbying/bribing the government, destroying nature, poisoning people, war mongering etc. On a smaller scale, this is the real estate market. Endless growth for assets can only come by debasing the currency to cause persistent inflation or by causing artificial scarcity. Both have been happening for many decades. You can see it in those birthday cards for older people where it shows the prices from like the 50’s compared to now. Housing prices are like 10-15x what they were 80 years ago. That is caused by purposeful “target” inflation which experts say is “healthy”. But healthy for whom? Antibiotics are healthy for the ill person but toxic to the bacteria. I feel like the populace has become the bacteria.
The prioritisation of the profit motive above all else is the defining characteristic of capitalism, so I think this distinction of corporatism is not meaningful. I would challenge you to find an era of capitalist economics where profit didn't lead to perverse incentives.
