“.....either out of fear or out of conviction.”
Corporations have gotten greedy over the last 50 years. They stopped the aspect of investing their profits back into their own company and have graduated to the world of stock and bonds. The return is greater and it doesn’t effect their bottom line.
But the real answer to your riddle is the fear factor. Not playing with the left can create a whole variety of attacks from the IRS, to Osha, even the rebuilding of tax laws that may kick the company right in the teeth.
An example of this is when California decided to destroy the auto insurance industry by literally passing a bill that forced insurance companies into charging rates that were decades old because the state thought they had grown to big. Of course these same companies were major investors in other companies through holdings and when they couldn’t charge a rate that paid their bills, they either made everyone assigned risk or pulled out of the state. California then realized they were cutting off their nose despite their face and fixed it.
This has happened every where. Look at what the unions have done to major business. They have cost the corporations so much money in HR alone that they have moved a lot of their business out of the country. Then the government turned around and tried to make it look like their fault for the unemployment problem after the feds destroyed the housing market and upset the apple cart.
The dominoes fell, and are still falling today with the lack of work being done to put humpty back together again. (But you notice they give themselves a raise every year)
rwood