Boiling Point

David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD on

Corporate Responsibility – Boiling Point - August 2025

There’s a dangerous heat building in the United States. You can feel it in everyday conversation, in online discourse, and increasingly, in headlines. What we’re witnessing isn’t just a momentary flare-up. It’s a systemic, growing resentment – a social pressure cooker nearing its boiling point. And at the center of it are corporations that have shed their last layers of accountability in favor of stock price growth at all costs, leaving employees and consumers to bear the brunt.

To be clear: pursuing profit is not inherently wrong. Capitalism at its best fuels innovation, competition, and growth. But what we’re seeing now isn’t just about profit – it’s about artificially inflating stock prices to satisfy investors and enrich executives through compensation packages tied to market value. These decisions often come at the direct expense of the very people who built and sustain these companies: their employees and customers.

And people are breaking.

In one of the most disturbing recent examples, a gunman entered the office building housing the NFL’s headquarters in New York City and opened fire, killing four people and wounding another. He left behind a note blaming the NFL for the brain trauma he believed had ruined his life. Though he never played in the league, he was a former high school athlete who cited the long-term effects of repeated head injuries. He believed the NFL had known the risks of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and failed to act. His crime was premeditated and horrific – but what’s perhaps even more unsettling is the number of people who expressed sympathy for his situation.

Earlier this year, another man, after years of pleading with a health insurance company to approve care for his sick relatives, shot and killed that company’s CEO. In the days that followed, social media filled with comments praising the shooter. Some people even called him a hero. Again, the act was murder – morally and legally indefensible. But the volume of support he received says something about the level of frustration many Americans now feel toward institutions that were supposed to protect them but instead appear to profit from their suffering.

None of this is to justify violence. Vigilantism is not justice. Killing is murder. I do not – and no one of good conscience should – support or excuse these actions. But it would be dangerously naïve to ignore what’s fueling them. People are losing faith that the system works. They’re losing faith that anyone in power is listening. And in that vacuum, the idea of vengeance begins to feel righteous to some.

There was once a time when corporations understood the need to be part of a healthy ecosystem. A classic example pointing out the danger of short-term gain: a U.S. shirt manufacturer employed local workers who earned enough to buy the very shirts they made. Then, to increase margins, the company outsourced manufacturing to another country. Costs dropped, profits soared – at least briefly. The executive responsible cashed out stock options and retired wealthy. But the people who lost their jobs could no longer afford the products, and eventually, the business collapsed.

This same pattern is now playing out in industries across the board – including tech, where some of the most profitable companies in history have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers in the name of “efficiency.” These aren’t struggling firms. They are immensely profitable – in some cases with billions in cash on hand. But they pursue stock growth, not long-term stability. They reduce headcount to improve earnings per share and boost share price, knowing full well that it undermines their own long-term customer base. The people they’re firing are the very ones who use their software, hardware, subscriptions, and services. The question isn’t whether the system will collapse under the weight of this thinking – it’s when.

You don’t have to look to personal violence to see how dangerously detached corporate leadership has become. Another harrowing example of profit-first decision-making is right in our own travel industry backyard. Boeing, once considered a gold standard of American engineering, suffered two devastating crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. Investigations later revealed a pattern of cost-cutting and internal pressure that prioritized delivery schedules and market share over safety. Critical systems like the MCAS software were added without properly informing pilots, all to keep development costs down. Executives sought to protect stock performance and market position – and in doing so, allowed known fatal design flaws to persist. The result wasn’t just loss of life; it was the near-collapse of one of America’s most iconic companies. The documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing – which I’ve previously called a must-watch – lays bare how systemic the failure was – not just of engineering, but of ethics.

So how is this any different from what we’re seeing now with big tech? Or with healthcare? Or finance? We’ve created a system where executive success is measured by how well they impress investors, not how well they serve society. The market rewards layoffs, punishes long-term investment, and treats human capital as expendable. Meanwhile, entire communities are hollowed out, and the public grows angrier with each betrayal.

In our current political climate, there’s little reason to believe things will change. Regulatory oversight is weak. Corporate accountability is barely a talking point and certainly not a practice. But the pendulum always swings back. And when it does, one of the first things that must be addressed is the lack of personal accountability at the top.

Executives who make decisions that harm workers and consumers – even when those decisions are legal – must begin to share in the consequences. If their actions result in mass layoffs, unsafe products, or the erosion of basic trust, they should not be allowed to walk away with millions. Whether it’s clawbacks, parachute nullification, liability reform, or stronger governance, we need mechanisms to ensure corporate leaders feel not just the rewards of success, but also the pain of failure and harm. The first step, as I’ve suggested before, is to force any profitable company that executes mass layoffs to cover all ex-employee’s healthcare costs on their existing plan at 100% for three years. If mass layoffs hurt profitable employers as much as it hurt the employees being kicked to the curb then companies would likely think twice before using it as a ploy to raise stock prices. I’m sure there are other ideas too, including forcing the resignation of the CEO anytime more than 5% of workers are laid-off at a profitable company. We must find a way to make corporate governance serve both society’s and the company’s long-term interest – not just Wall Street’s.

The boiling point is here. And if we don’t take the heat seriously, if we continue to dismiss the tragedies as isolated incidents rather than signals of a broader collapse, then the next wave of violence and unrest will surprise no one – least of all the people who saw it coming. Because when the lid finally blows, we won’t be able to say we weren’t warned.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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