Large public corporations as we know them (C corporations) were created by industrialists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who were seeking a way to privatize profits while socializing liability. In other words, the shareholders receive all the profits while everybody else in society assumes the risk when they fail. That is exactly what allows them to grow to such immense size and wield so much power. It is such a great deal for the shareholders that thousands of people will invest millions or even billions of dollars without knowing or caring what they do.