It's American capitalism. We just lost our way.

"Servants, labourers and workmen of different kinds, make up the far greater part of every great political society. But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged." - Adam Smith

Exactly, just as democracy is a way to maximize the power of the average person, capitalism is a way to maximize her economic freedom.

Admittedly since children cannot vote our government will always be biased toward the interests of adults and will operate on a time horizon that steals from the future to benefit the present.

However in a utopian version, perhaps there would be some mechanism by which the longer-term interests of children could be represented democratically.

I would also argue that in a capitalist utopia there would not be things that we typically call market failures, since institutions would emerge to solve the problems based on market incentives.

Also, I'm not arguing that a capitalist utopia could exist, just that it is sometimes useful to offer contrast to the idea that big firms must somehow have an enlightened and altruistic vision in order to make investments like the one in the article. It could in fact just be the true north of the profit motive animating longer-term planning than we typically see (due to perverse incentives that focus most businesses on very short-term planning).