Corporate leaders at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday included...

Corporate leaders at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday included Mark Zuckerberg, left, Jeff Bezos, third from right, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk. Credit: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

This guest essay reflects the views of Stanley S. Litow, a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

The outsize influence billionaire Elon Musk wields in shaping the future of our nation shines a light on the role unelected corporate leaders play in society. Musk's pull, coupled with his dominance of social media, took us within hours of a government lockdown last month, potentially affecting the lives of millions. His efforts to slash government spending may deprive millions more access to health care, drugs and food, all to fund massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

In addition to Musk, Mark Zuckerberg led Facebook to end background checks, making it easier to spread lies on the platform. Jeff Bezos killed an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the Bezos-owned Washington Post, and a range of corporations like McDonalds and Facebook backtracked on commitments to diversity.

In looking to the future, it's important to consider the role corporations have played historically — positive and negative.

First, the bright side. In the early 1900s, close to 500 companies gave employees a week of paid vacation, when government employees didn't get even one day off. In 1870, Macy's in New York offered its employees free health care before government did. In 1875, J.P. Morgan offered retirees a pension plan more than six decades before Social Security. In the 1950s, IBM opened the first racially integrated factory below the Mason-Dixon Line in Kentucky, helping integrate schools in Lexington. After the horrors in Charlottesville and George Floyd's murder, many CEOs publicly condemned those actions. All of this influenced the behavior of others.

There is the dark side. Some CEOs have been models of corporate greed. Bernie Madoff cheated his clients out of their retirements. Enron committed large-scale corporate fraud. Bad corporate behavior has existed in every decade alongside models of excellence.

But positive business actions don't just demonstrate social responsibility, they also benefit the bottom line. Data shows socially responsible corporations do significantly better financially than those that aren't. It strengthens productivity, increases recruitment and retention, and builds more effective enterprises.

The lesson: We need strong corporate leaders to continue to model behavior that makes society stronger.

We need to encourage CEOs to speak out and act to fight climate change, preserve the Affordable Care Act, and ensure that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are not devastated, all of which polls show are supported by the American public. And our schools need to be sustained and not devastated. While the election seemed to indicate a shift to the right with respect to immigration and inflation, Americans largely believe in a fair economy. This is an opportunity for corporate leaders to lead and follow their best predecessors.

In that vein, fair and equitable compensation and benefits and hiring based on skill, regardless of gender or race, help fulfill the promise of the Constitution, and produce real economic benefits. No company should backtrack on being fair and equitable in its treatment of workers. Corporate leaders must exert positive influence here, too.

Private sector leadership is vitally important to a sound and effective democracy. Failure to provide it will carry major financial risk. Companies like Enron that had bad ethics were shut down. Bernie Madoff died in jail. But the repercussions of their actions didn’t end there. They led to legislative and regulatory responses.

Responsible private sector leadership, with a true connection between business success and societal stability, is the best way forward, socially and economically. CEOs can't retreat simply to curry favor. We need real leadership. The stakes are too high.

This guest essay reflects the views of Stanley S. Litow, a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

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