~~Take this with a grain of salt because I can't think of the proper search terms to verify what I think I remember reading:~~

Once upon a time corporations couldn't be created unless they proved a benefit to society. We really need to go back to that...

Edit: with more time I found something.

"In the United States, the first important industrial corporation seems to have been the Boston Manufacturing Co., which was founded in 1813.

Experimental in nature and spaced out in time, these early ventures grew mostly independent of one another (the article mentioned older companies from around the world that I left out) But they had one thing in common: even as for-profit ventures, they were explicitly required to serve the common good.

For the first companies, the privilege of incorporation, often via royal charter, was granted selectively to facilitate activities that contributed to the population’s welfare, such as the construction of roads, canals, hospitals and schools. Allowing shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end. Companies were deeply interwoven within the country’s or town’s social fabric, and were meant to contribute to its collective prosperity"

Source (I know, it's not a source I'd use for a college paper): https://qz.com/work/1188731/the-idea-that-companies-should-benefit-society-is-as-old-as-capitalism