Milton Friedman's Argument Analysis

Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.

Generally most reasonable people in a market driven economy would agree that companies are in business to generate economic profitability. Also many people would agree that companies and organizations have certain social responsibilities to the communities in which they make their profit. I believe that profitability and social responsibility can and should be combined in an ideal world. Dunlap’s perspective clearly advocates the point

With employees placed at the top of stakeholder groups, it’s apparent that the hypothesis for high profitability is a direct influence from positive corporate social responsibility. The boards of directors have to take the initiative to showcase positive corporate social responsibility in order to generate these results.

I do not agree with the following quote by Milton Friedman. Engaging in activities that are designed to only increase profits for a company would open doors to complications and mistakes, which is caused by the lack of customer satisfaction. The social responsibility of any business should be to take care of its customers, instead of just focusing on the amount of profit the company is making. If a company decides to just focus on making a profit, it will lose focus on providing customers with products and services that will improve their standard of living.

But, here is my point. If the social responsibility of a business is to increase profit, this does not omit the probability of degrading the surrounding environments (society, economy, ecology...) which by default will be contradicting to the term social responsibility itself which enhances on bringing benefit to society. For me, a business can be at the same time socially engaged and financially maximizing its profit without using someone else's money. For example, a company can be ecological by doing some really simple actions like recycling papers no longer needed, turning off lights and powering off devices not in use, donating equipment and material no longer used in the work offices, and so on. These simple actions are in fact very beneficial for the

What is an American? Thomas Friedman, Steven Critchley, and other say that America is falling, we are all violent animals. Yes. As Americans, we fight, we bully, we have nasty arguments, because we hold a different opinion or said something slightly offensive. We find it easier to raise our fist than to raise our dignity and peacefully talk or walk away. There are cases of violent acts all over the news, movies, music, TV, and social media. Violence is a problem within our commutes, however violence is not what makes an American or what defines America. It is our ability to come together in the face of adversity, in our darkest hour, that moment when everyone expects us to be out of the count, we pick each other up and fight back. For that we as Americans are big brothers we fight or bully each other but when someone else threatens or harms our fellow Americans we stand up and do everything in our power to make amends.No matter if it’s a person, another country, or mother nature.

Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.

Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and writer, who had a massive impact on the research agenda of the economics profession. His famous words “the only responsibility of business is to increase its profits” (Friedman, Milton. 1970) led to many controversial debates on whether businesses should have ethics or if profit should be their main goal. Corporate social responsibility has many definitions, as its interpretation is quite loose, so I have chosen one that relates the most to this essay, given by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, in 2000: “Corporate social

This is how the three time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman described today’s globalization. No one can deny that the advent of policy developments and information technology has tremendously improved the interaction and integration among nations, as manifested by the drastic changes in international trade, investment, and migration. For instance, cross-border trade has increased by almost 20 times since 1950. Likewise, based on the World Investment Report, global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows rose by 9% in all socio-economic groups including developed, developing, and transition economies. This upward trend is projected to propagate over the next three years.

Corporate social responsibility has been one the key business buzz words of the 21st century. Consumers' discontent with the corporation has forced it to try and rectify its negative image by associating its name with good deeds. Social responsibility has become one of the corporation's most pressing issues, each company striving to outdo the next with its philanthropic image. People feel that the corporation has done great harm to both the environment and to society and that with all of its wealth and power, it should be leading the fight to save the Earth, to combat poverty and illness and etc. "Corporations are now expected to deliver the good, not just the goods; to pursue

There are conflicting expectations of the nature of a company’s responsibilities to society. However, those companies that undertake what may be termed ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ must decide; what are the actual social responsibilities of these companies? I will present a possible paradigm. Also, I will look at the benefit to the business that employs proper management as compared the business with poor management. This research paper describes my view of corporate social responsibility and compares the social responsibilities of Delta Air Lines and Spirit

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a very controversial topic. A question that has been debated for the past few decades is; is it corporately viable to introduce social responsibility as a proposed addition to the work ethic of business organisations. As well as, if adopting the framework of corporate social responsibility would yield positive improvements for those organisations.

Milton Friedman wrote in his famous 1970’s article in The New York Times Magazine, that “the one and only social responsibility of business, is to increase profits for shareholders.” Milton Friedman's view on business responsibility accentuates the importance of maximizing firm's value. He pointed that the “there is one and only one social responsibility of business –to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engaged in open and free completion without deception or fraud’’ and by taking on the burden of social cost, the business becomes less efficient (Milton Friedman, 1962).

The classical view is justified mainly on the basis of neoclassical economic theory arguments using notions such as the free market, economic efficiency, and profit maximisation. Neoclassical economics and several management theories assume that the corporation’s objective is profit maximization. According to Friedman (1998), the rationale of a corporation is to make profits for shareholders. The author further highlights that the sole responsibility of business is to utilize its resources and to take on activities intended to raise its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game. Without a doubt, one of the main criticisms of the classical view is the profit-seeking motivation which is seen as the only force behind business activities. The argument is that, by definition, profitable companies deliver products and services that individuals are prepared to pay for, so companies are already delivering a social good. Consequently, companies ought not to be obligated to offer any “extra” social good, as this is expected to consume shareholder value and keep the economic system from functioning effectively (Vickers, 2005: p 26).

Companies with extensive responsibilities even argue about the system in pursuing social responsibility of business. According to Ulrich Steger, the company should prioritize the shareholders’ incessant interest but they should also be concerned of their social responsibilities, morals and environmental goals that the public expects them to be. Without a doubt, companies’ primary goal is to earn a profit. Emphasizing on profitability affects the fundamental values in the company, its morality. Companies ignore the ethics just to earn a mountainous income. This often causes extensive repercussions in the companies.