Own who you are

"We... have to pass the extra costs on to consumers..." no, you're choosing to pass the extra costs on to consumers.

I heard that phrase during a really good presentation on a very well managed public affairs campaign which questioned a new regulation - the upshot was that the business in question would have to pay £1m in extra tax. The rationale for the campaign was that "we would have to pass the extra costs on to consumers."

The company in question made pre-tax profits of £31.9m last year, an increase of around £20m year on year, but they "...would have to pass the extra cost on to consumers."

No, you would choose to. 

I'm not some naïve anti-business leftie, I understand that the legal entity of a public company has one purpose - to increase profits and provide dividends to shareholders, what irritates me is the constant feed of - if costs increase, then prices will go up, not if costs increase then our profit margin goes down but we will survive and still pay a dividend.

Is it too much to ask for a little ownership in decisions? Is it too much to ask for a company to say "If we have to pay this extra tax, we will put up prices because our legal responsibility is to our shareholders"?

I think I may respect that more.