The central goal pursued by businesses is to increase profits. This is not an inherently bad motive, as businesses are merely striving to stay afloat in a competitive market. However, the pursuit of profit does not always produce socially responsible behavior. Businesses will often choose to forgo environmental safeguards in order to increase their bottom lines. The burden of these costs are passed to the public broadly, as water supplies are contaminated, the atmosphere is polluted, and natural resources are depleted. This is where the role of government becomes paramount. It is the responsibility of government to curb the excesses of business and to corral the negative externalities associated with profit-seeking-behavior. The government
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The first was a transformation of agency practices with a great effort to conceal deregulation efforts in secrecy. The EPA has now stopped publishing appointment calendars, begun confiscating the cellphones of agency employees before meetings with Mr. Pruitt, and beefed up security as to limit access to agency heads. Due to the lack of transparency in the agency, the reason for the heightened level of secrecy was unknown. However, it was thought that Mr. Pruitt erected such safeguards to prevent the employees of the agency and the public from being able to criticize his efforts to roll back regulations, and even dismantle parts of the agency itself. In October of 2017, the public’s worst suspicions were confirmed when the New York Times obtained a copy of Mr. Pruitt’s calendar for the first months of his directorship, revealing his determination to hand the EPA over to the very corporations it is intended to rein in. The schedule revealed that the director has held almost no meetings with environmental activists or public health advocates, while chalking his schedule full of meetings with top executives and lobbyists from the corporations he is supposed to be
The first was a transformation of agency practices with a great effort to conceal deregulation efforts in secrecy. The EPA has now stopped publishing appointment calendars, begun confiscating the cellphones of agency employees before meetings with Mr. Pruitt, and beefed up security as to limit access to agency heads. Due to the lack of transparency in the agency, the reason for the heightened level of secrecy was unknown. However, it was thought that Mr. Pruitt erected such safeguards to prevent the employees of the agency and the public from being able to criticize his efforts to roll back regulations, and even dismantle parts of the agency itself. In October of 2017, the public’s worst suspicions were confirmed when the New York Times obtained a copy of Mr. Pruitt’s calendar for the first months of his directorship, revealing his determination to hand the EPA over to the very corporations it is intended to rein in. The schedule revealed that the director has held almost no meetings with environmental activists or public health advocates, while chalking his schedule full of meetings with top executives and lobbyists from the corporations he is supposed to be