"The desire of corporations to maximize profits creates conflict with the general welfare of the nation at large."
That the desire of corporations to maximize profits creates conflict with the general welfare of the nation at large is a controversial issue. In this discussion I shall present arguments against the later assertion.

First, companies that desire to maximize profits are usually companies that also desire to grow or expand and by doing so they create more jobs and opportunities thus contributing to the welfare of the nation. For example usually small comunities depend on large companies to subsist, and in the cases when a company stops being profitable, this comunity gets seriusly hurt when people start losing their jobs.

Second, the extra profits made by such companies can only go to two different uses; to distribute among the shareholders or to invest in new technology or develop new products. In both cases the money contributes to the general welfare; if it goes to shareholders, the money is used by them to acquire more products and services, thus estimulating demand and contributing to the economy growth, and f the money goes to R&D this will represent future increases in sales that eventually pay taxes and contribute to the general welfare.

Third, in general companies that are profitable like sharing this profits with the communitiy by creating social welfare programs or by making large donations to schools and hospitals. For example there are several non profit organizations that have their origins in a large, profitable company.

Admitidly, a company trying to maximize profit could also do so by evading taxes, but this could be prevented by regular inspections, strict rules imposed by the IRS, and also by generating consensus among all citizens that taxes are important for the general welfare of the nation.

As a conclusion, although companies may try to maximize profits by evading taxes, this is a practice that could be stopped or at least controled. In general the desire of corporations or companies to maximize profits does not conflict with the general welfare of the nation at large because as this corporations grow, more jobs are created, the demand is stimulated, new technologies or products are created, social welfare is done and taxes are being paid, all of them great contributions to the general welfare of the nation.