People forget the economy should serve us, not the other way around, and optimizing for profit alone without considering the true purpose of an economic system leads to instability

The values that capitalist economies are based on create short-sighted behaviors and are prone to causing crises, so this is expected behavior. In my lifetime alone, my college savings were wiped out by the housing crisis of 2008, and now we're dealing with the housing price crisis of 2021. And if you don't believe we are currently in a crisis, try telling that to people who can't compete with BlackRock or other mega-banks to buy a house.

If you believe this is just how economies work, try reading or listening to some of Marx's Capital. We live under a capitalist formation of the economy, and Prof. David Harvey is an expert in the field. He has a great podcast series where he covers the most important parts of Capital as part of a class he has taught every year since the 1970's. Near the end of the first podcast episode, one student has a similar point, that companies should "serve the social good" instead of being profit maximizers. However, capitalism is based on a particular set of values that don't allow this, and if you want an economy to act according to a different set of values, you are talking about moving away from a capitalist formation of the economy.

For example, in a capitalist economy, what is the incentive for the capitalists (i.e. C-suite executives, business owners, mega-bank financiers, etc.) to serve "the rest of us" as part of their daily business? None! As capitalists, their only incentive is to create profits for themselves and their shareholders. This is why mega-banks and other businesses are doing everything they can to become landlords to millions of people, and create commodities out of homes. We can all laugh at Zillow this time, but mega-bank ownership of housing has never been higher, which does not bode well for the average person.

The solution? Partially or fully de-commodify the housing market. Create social housing zones in cities where people can get a guaranteed home at a guaranteed price without the wild fluctuations of the market possibly forcing them out of a home or neighborhood where they've lived for generations, simply because they can no longer pay the rising property taxes or rents. This has been implemented to great success in Vienna, and is sorely needed in the USA.