The implementation of anti-corporate policy and public directive must come through an internal hegemony; namely, education. I honestly believe that a well-educated populace tends to shy away from conservatism, jingoism, and unfettered capitalistic goals.
I agree that well educated people turn away from conservatism etc., however here in America and any other rich capitalist country, large business form monopolies and it would be impossible for the people to simply force these companies to be environmentally friendly or concerned about consumption or “override pure capitalist price competition.” That’s wishful thinking.
When people can be shown and truly understand the actions of corporations in pursuit of profit, their sense of justice and accountability will override pure capitalist price competition. Examples of this can be seen in liberal places like San Francisco and Seattle, where co-ops, small business, and ecologically sound practices are supproted en masse.
This is on a very minor scale. Here is Seattle some small business survive that do not have the large capitalist outlook, however Seattle is still controlled by the corporate giants; Starbucks, Microsoft, Boeing etc. All of these giants were at one point small local companies but the inevitable will always occur- they will only be concerned about maximizing profit. In order for companies to survive in America they
must attract outside investment and in order to do so they must maximize their profit. If investors believe they can make a better return elsewhere, they will withhold funds, and the company will not survive. Investors will always shy away from “moral” companies or environmentally friendly companies because they know that they are not making as much $$$ as possible.
When these large companies grow, they are able to cut their costs by producing on a much larger scale and using their revenues to invest in new technology, doing business with other large companies etc. This gives the biggest companies a competitive advantage and allows them to become monopoly producers, which in turn drives their competitors out of business or in other words, the small companies (environmentally friendly etc.), these giants are then able to fix prices and wages for entire industries.
It’s much bigger than simply the masses being educated and trying to pressure large companies to comply with their code of ethics or whatever you want to call it. When entire industries are monopolized, there is nothing the consumer can do. (Protesting, boycotts, etc. will only go so far)
As you know, I believe Marx's idea of a planned, socialist economy would solve these problems. If the major industries and banks were publicly owned, then we as a society could democratically plan how to use our resources. Public ownership and democratic planning would allow everyone to have some input into these decisions. Rather than considering profit margins and market share etc. etc. etc., a system of democratic planning would consider how to use resources most efficiently to satisfy everyone's wants and needs, the environment, etc.
And yes, I agree, a massive paradigm shift in public opinion would have to occur. Where we disagree is that I don’t think we can realistically implement these changes under our current system. There’s too much money, the rich are too powerful to simply bow down to the masses and allow us to take their wealth. It’s never happened in the history of our planet.