Stakeholder Capitalism: Theft, Path to Central Planning, or Both?

Stakeholder capitalism is being pushed both by ideological partisans who have little respect for ownership rights and, perhaps worse, by those who would benefit financially from more exclusionary capital markets. Moreover, the managerial incentives created by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives are likely to hurt all constituencies to the benefit of managers who are charged with overseeing their implementation. Still further, the ESG movement is poised to create a toxic mix of government and business, the end result of which will be the broad destruction of social value and a decline in human flourishing.