Allow me to introduct the concept of ponerology.
This is the idea that a power structure, over time, becomes twisted by the work of relatively few sociopaths until the entire structure and everyone in it behaves and thinks like a sociopath as well.
The idea that profit is the only thing that matters, that employees must be paid as little as possible, is a purely pathological judgement.
Pathological in this context means a decision that is overtly made on 'rational' grounds only. Much like the Randian philosophy of objectivism. Having a perfection definition of 'pathological' isn't necessary to recognize what's wrong.
A pathological person will think any action is logical if they get an immediate benefit. The consequences for others are irrelevant and so are the long-term costs. They are someone else's problem.
The current culture of finance and business is exactly this. The system itself has become pathological as a result of years of sociopaths wielding great power. Now, even a decent, humane person, once they get sucked into the corporate world, will find themselves making utterly pathological decisions and being congratulated for it by other decent, humane people.
These people are not sociopaths, but our culture has reached the point where it's internalised the idea that you have to behave like a sociopath to achieve anything.
Recovering the system from this point is a long and difficult process, and right now there's nobody even willing to say there's a problem.
Which is pathological in itself.
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