To the Editor:

Re “Feeling Heat, C.E.O.s Pledge New Priorities” (front page, Aug. 20):

You report that the Business Roundtable recently issued a statement on the purpose of a corporation that emphasizes job generation, a sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all. It would be great to feel optimistic that the leaders of America’s largest corporations are at last beginning to recognize that they have an obligation to society that goes beyond generating value to shareholders while enriching themselves.

So, allow me to dream. Soda companies will recognize that they are a leading contributor to the epidemic of obesity in America and its associated diseases. Tobacco companies will take responsibility for the cancers they cause. Energy companies will admit that global warming is real and that they are major contributors. Gun manufacturers will stop producing and selling assault weapons. Chemical companies will stop producing pollutants that are poisoning our lands and waters.

And while they are all so busy taking these socially and environmentally conscious actions, they will stop union busting and ensure that all of their valued workers make a fair wage and have adequate health care and pensions.

Hmm, I think not. Absent constraints by government, businesses will continue as always, putting profit before all, damn the consequences. The statement issued by the Business Roundtable is not to be taken seriously. It is just a cynical ploy to convince the gullible, as President Trump does every day, that companies take the common people’s needs to heart, and are conscientious stewards of the public good, so there’s no need for big government to step in and rein in their excesses. Then watch their profits and personal wealth climb while the world declines.