[caryatid]

... they don't vote their shares in their own best interests ...

Many DO vote their [our] shares in their [our] own best interests ... but, even when one owns a large chunk of shares ... it does no good when the rules are set up so that even if all shareholders vote against, or withhold their votes entirely from, a particular proposal [or board member] ... that proposal/board member can be passed/elected by one vote ... his own.

The folks coming out of the business schools learned how to manipulate the system. They have infiltrated the boards of most corporations and have loaded up the boards with their cronies ... and the individual shareholder has been left out in the cold while they have feathered their nests and raided the corporations. It has become a matter of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Severe limitations should be imposed on these cross-corporation crony deals. Further severe limitations should be imposed on how many boards one can sit on.

Nothing short of a revolution will put an end to it.

[Gondring]

I could not have said it as well as you did. Excellent summary of the situation.

[CAWats]

...and the individual shareholder has been left out in the cold while they have feathered their nests and raided the corporations.

No, the indivuduals are free to succeed on the open market as capitalists or whatever and become responsible for their own success and quit whining like a one-year old. Companies are in business to make money; not coddle its employees. They can work elsewhere if they don't like it.