In short, the stockholders are the most ill-informed, irresponsible, uncommitted, and unnecessary of all the parties involved with the firm. Yet, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries, they alone are entitled to select directors, who (it is widely argued) are to cater to them alone—or, rather, to their pecuniary interests alone—over the well-being of workers, customers, the community, the environment, or even the long-term well-being of the company itself.