I see your point.

I think most people invest in corporations like BP simply to generate revenue, although blindly perhaps.
I dont feel most people invest in something based on emotion. The emotional part hits when something like this happens.

I'm sorry I'm posting opinions that dont seem to agree with you zoe.
Dont take them personally.
If they bother you, dont read them.

The shareholders choose who is at the top of the corporation, the board of directors is elected. So on some levels shareholders are responsible for what the corporation does. This is not to say that shareholders are not lied to on a regular basis. This happens all too often, much like our elected politicians lie.

I posted this info so that people could see that corporations like BP are not owned by a few people, from a single country, (there has been a lot of anti British sentiment going around), but are multinational corporations, owned by many thousands of people, in every country of the world.

Shareholders do have a great deal of power, but for some reason, much like voters in democratic countries, they do not use this power to bring about change. IMO, people have been conditioned to accept whatever those that are in authority do, without argument, even those that we have put into these positions of power. It is the victim mentality, that is so pervasive in our society.

Instead of asking "what is BP and the government going to do about this?", why not ask "what can I do about this?", BP & Co may be able to deal very successfully with a few angry citizens, but a few million angry citizens, not so easy to deal with.

Just some thoughts,

spud