One accounting expert estimates that in 1995 alone U.S. corporations would have had to shell out $3.
One accounting expert estimates that in 1995 alone U.S. corporations would have had to shell out $3.5 trillion if required to pay for all of the externalized costs (e.g., health care expenses incurred as a result of work-related injuries, unsafe products, and pollution) that their business activities generate ”a figure four times greater than the $822 billion they earned in profits that year.
Source: Michele Simon, Appetite for Profits, intro footnote: 7. Eric Assadourian, "The Role of Stakeholders in the Evolving Corporation," online discussion, at: http://www.worldwatch.org/live/discussion/113/