Financial progress - where progress is often change for change's sake - at all cost.

Cheaper wins, more profitable wins, regardless of whether good or not. Frequently when we already knew it's not (leaded petrol, radium on watch dials etc). Far more quickly since the changes of the 1980s - deregulation, privatisation, and so forth. If it wasn't deregulated enough, move it out of sight and offshore it somewhere with weaker standards.

So I would tend to say we sacrificed the future for an extra 0.5c on the dollar.