History Main / ThereAreNoGoodExecutives

** ''Storm Front'' has made it explicitly plain that Horizon actually is no Deconstruction at all -- they were merely AffablyEvil VillainsWithGoodPublicity all along.

* JossWhedon has no great love of corporations, either:

** And then there is Columbian Subterfuge, where after you get many prisoners out of an Aztlan POW Camp, it turns out Agent 211983 had executed the prisoners and make an [[MoralEventHorizon extremely]] [[StrawmanNewsMedia sensationalist version]] of the event. While the atrocities without tampering will be sufficient to incriminate Aztlan, this would had given Shadowland (now Jackpoint) some fuel to discredit Horizon with. And then there was the friendly fire incident... But given how WarIsHell...

** ''Storm Front'' has made it explicitly plain that Horizon actually is no Deconstruction at all -- they were merely VillainsWithGoodPublicity all along.

-->-- '''Napoleon'''

[[AC: RealLife]]
* If you're an extreme left wing socialist, you might believe that ''all'' capitalism is inherently sociopathic (systemically evil, not individually, '''duh'''). Because of differences in aforementioned flavors, the socialist may differ in whether this means capitalism must be banned, or not personally practiced, or moderated with extensive ethical rules in a social democracy. [[NoTrueScotsman Very few socialists will consider]] [[BlackSheep social democrats one of them.]]
** Beyond the pejorative "extreme", it is indisputable that the purpose of any capitalist enterprise is to generate profit, by whatever means possible. This, as centuries of experience makes entirely apparent, renders executives, by their inescapable nature, amoral at best.
*** ''On paper'', every capitalist enterprise is exclusively dedicated to making profit. But in real life, it's quite possible for businesses to be moral, even if their profits suffer as a result. Businesses are managed by people, after all, and some people are kind. And don't forget all the artists who nominally make a profit from their work but are actually DoingItForTheArt, so they turn down licensing deals (or whatever) that conflict with their artistic vision. Every economic system is made up of humans, and humans are complicated.
*** Even Karl Marx recognised that capitalism isn't entirely without value. He saw it as necessary transition from feudalism to socialism. Several other left-leaning thinkers have added the deal [[GrayAndGrayMorality plenty of more shades of gray]].
**** Indeed, Marx extensively praised capitalism in ''The Communist Manifesto''. However, [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Marx's definition of capitalism was pretty broad]] and basically covered any economic system where machines and factories were the primary means of making more stuff, and said machines and factories were not collectively owned. This definition, in and of itself, doesn't actually require any corporations in the first place.
* Also, one does not have to be anti-capitalist in order to subscribe to this trope. Joseph Schumpeter, a classically liberal (and hence pro–free-market) economist, believed that the corporate, bureaucratic economies (which were run on a mixture of Keynesianism and Corporate Statism, rather than laissez-faire free markets) of 1950s America were going to destroy free markets by strangling the Entrepreneur and the Innovator under a blanket of institutionalized stagnation.
** You'll find a lot of conservatives and libertarians who aren't any fonder of Big Business than they are of Big Government (which is to say, not very).
* More generally, this trope tends to be directed at big multinational corporations as opposed to smaller mom-and-pop stores or collectively owned co-ops. A recurring theme both in fiction and reality is that of large businesses and big-box stores like Wal-Mart wiping out smaller, more local economies and businesses. For all that the owner of the local restaurant or coffee shop is himself an entrepreneur, he tends to be depicted more positively than the owner of a large multinational firm. Of course, most mom-and-pop coffee shops don't require their employees to do the Wal-Mart cheer every morning...
* In [[{{Creator/Confucius}} Confucianism]], the merchant class was ranked at the bottom of the Four Occupations, below [[GentlemanAndAScholar gentry-scholars]], farmers and artisans. The reasoning behind this was that, unlike the other classes, merchants didn't produce any goods of their own, but instead profited from the hard work of others. The scholars often [[AuthorAppeal wrote nasty things about merchants]], saying that they were generally greedy and immoral. Despite their low social standing, merchants were able to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney use their wealth to wield considerable influence and power]].
** It was quite similar in medieval Europe. The church initially condemned as banking and trading as evil and against God’s will. People would thus often blame the merchants for natural catastrophes including disease, floods or famine as a punishment to the community from God. Lending money with interest (usury) was considered particularly sinful, and was thus (initially) left to non-Christians, particularly Jews - which sadly only added fuel to anti-Semitic sentiments. As in China, ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney came into effect. Also, the upper classes eventually realized that trade and banking were useful for expanding the economy and providing money for wars, and thus merchants eventually became more accepted, and a lot more influential in the late Middle Ages.

* Subverted to a great extent in the [[FanFic/UltimateSleepwalker Earth]]-[[FanFic/UltimateSpiderWoman 2706]] verse. In both the ''Ultimate Sleepwalker'' and ''Ultimate Spider-Woman'' series, {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s have expressed their hatred of their honest competitors. According to corrupt executives like Norman Osborn, the Honest Corporate Executives (people like [[IronMan Tony Stark]], [[CaptainBritain Brian Braddock]], [[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} Warren Worthington]] and [[Comicbook/MoonKnight Marc Spector]]) are cowards who hare holding the rest of them back. Guys like Stark and Worthington obviously enjoy the wealth and power that comes with their work, but at the end of the day they're really only interested in running their businesses. People like Osborn and Justin Hammer, on the other hand, actively believe that their wealth and power give them the right to lord over the lower classes and do whatever they want to them.

* PeterFHamilton deliberately set out to invert this trope with Julia Evans, the young idealistic CEO of Event Horizon in his trilogy about psychic detective Greg Mandel. She keeps most of her industry in Britain to provide work and a strong economy (of course, this also increases Event Horizon's power and influence within Britain) and quashes [[TheWorldIsNotReady potentially harmful technologies]] rather than make a profit from them.

* Everybody, without exception, in a JasperFforde novel. Occasionally he'll drop in a Seemingly Very Nice Corporate Executive, but you only have to read two or three of his books before you no longer fall for it. ''Every'' corporate executive is evil, and worse, so is every corporate ''employee''.

** On the other hand, such corporations tend to drive down prices, leading to a lower cost of living for the lower class, as well as more jobs.

* ''The Dogs of War'' by FrederickForsyth is pretty anvilistic about the role business interests played in various bloody African wars. The bitterness the mercenary protagonist feels over this is a major reason behind his FaceHeelTurn at the end. It's also at least partly TruthInTelevision, as the plot is an allusion to the role that European mining interests played in the Katanga Rebellion in the Congo.

** It is true that the primary purpose of any capitalist enterprise is to generate profits. This, as centuries' worth of historical examples show, strongly tempts many executives to ignore common decency and/or the law in pursuit of said profits.

** Beyond the pejorative "extreme", it is indisputable that the purpose of any capitalist enterprise is to generate profit, by whatever means possible. This, as centuries of experience makes entirely apparent, renders executives, by their inescapable nature, amoral at best.

* The show ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' pretty much runs on this trope. Half the episodes are about some evil executive(s) or entire corporations abusing their power.

In this setting, ''all'' businessmen are some variation of the CorruptCorporateExecutive. To them, swindling customers, abusing employees or even resorting to violence to eliminate threats to their wealth and power simply comes with the job. Or at least, if anything, it's a nice fringe benefit.

* ''Literature/JenniferGovernment'' has two types of executives: bastards and John Nike.

** Even Karl Marx recognised that capitalism isn't entirely without value. He saw it as necessary transition from feudalism to socialism. Several other left-leaning thinkers have added the deal [[GrayAndGrayMorality plenty of more shades of gray]].
*** Indeed, Marx extensively praised capitalism in ''The Communist Manifesto''. However, [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies Marx's definition of capitalism was pretty broad]] and basically covered any economic system where machines and factories were the primary means of making more stuff, and said machines and factories were not collectively owned. This definition, in and of itself, doesn't actually require any corporations in the first place.

* ''The Dogs of War'' by FrederickForsyth is pretty anvilistic about the role business interests played in various bloody African wars. The bitterness the mercenary protagonist feels over this is a major reason behind his FaceHeelTurn at the end.
** It's also at least partly TruthInTelevision, reprising the role that European mining interests played in the Katanga Rebellion in the Congo.

** ...Except for one chapter of ''Comicbook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', where he JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope because he got sick of being the aversion ("Why should ''I'' have to be the only honest man in this cockeyed world? ... Why can't I take shortcuts like everyone else? ... Who died and left ''me'' in charge of morals?!")
*** Considering that it got him a buttload of guilt and a zombie pursuer for several decades, he quickly learned to accept it.

* Averted, but not Inverted, in ''AtlasShrugged''; there are plenty of CorruptCorporateExecutive types (usually [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections sucking up to their best buddy in government]]), but the protagonists are generally of the SelfMadeMan variety of entrepreneur, and there are plenty of non-businessperson protagonists (Richard Halley being a musician, Hugh Akston being a professor of philosophy, etc.).

*** In fact, Nate, believes this trope whole-heartedly, and has problems wrapping his head around the subversions.

** And then there's the ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' with Rossum Corp. who provide daily [[MindControl mind rape]] services for the rich and powerful, and that's the ''least'' corrupt thing they do.

** And then there's the ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' with Rossum Corp. who provide daily [[MindControl mind rape]] services for the rich and the powerful, and that's the ''least'' corrupt thing they do.

* ThePhantomOfTheOpera: In the original book by Gaston Leroux, this is the reason Erik (the eponymous phantom) could maintain his reign of terror: In Parisian society, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections it’s not what you do, it’s who you know]]. Therefore the executives at the Opera and the police are not only corrupt, but {{StupidBoss}}es who don’t care about how to do his job better but how to practice politics and being discreet with any problem, making them the perfect victims of BlackMail.