To add to your list of examples. KLM, for instance, was one of the first to introduce a system that would allow certain flight data to be uploaded into the flight computer as opposed to be requiring the pilots to enter it by hand. Other than fewer errors, they touted potentially saving pilots a couple minutes of data entry as one of the chief gains of the system.
Article tl;dr -- Airlines used to get from airport to airport faster. Airlines used to be late a lot of the time. Airlines increased their estimated flight times in order to achieve higher on-time percentage. The reason they did this instead of just being faster is that they love using more fuel.
I'm not anywhere near the airline industry myself. The next time I see misreporting on my own company or industry I'll look back at this and remind myself it could be worse.
That's not the populist notion on corporations at all. The populist notion is that corporations' incentive structure, set by their board/leadership, causes them to act at the expense of rank and file workers and consumers.
That's very different than "evil" or "stupid".
They are models, specifically sanctioned by law, that are organized around particular sets of interests.
Just because there are subsets of people whose self-interest is aligned with particular corporations' doesn't mean that those interests are aligned with the self interest of everyone, or even a majority of people.
And this isn't to say that there isn't an important role for corporations to play in the world, but to suggest that their form and function is the result of everyone acting in their self interest is oversimplifying things dramatically.
"The secret to become millionaire is to be a billionaire and buy an airline"
This is the industry that generated the famous story where American saved $40,000/year by going from two olives to one in their in-flight salad. United saved $300,000/year by printing their magazine on lighter paper. If you work at an airline and find a way to shave off a dime in fuel costs per flight, you’ll get articles written about you. And we’re supposed to believe that these companies don’t care about wasting fuel now that their schedules are padded out a bit?