The Social Responsibility of Business

Friedman's major themes connect to the idea that a business' ultimate goal is to increase profits and nothing more. He believes this so strongly in fact that he considers using any source of revenue for anything other than to pursue higher profits is "fraud". Not the fraud that we have grown so accustomed to in the business world, but even using this money in a charitable sense would also fall under this category of fraud. Friedman's new category of fraud refers to the central idea of his paper in which the executive of the company's ultimate goal is to increase profits and thus increase value to the stockholders, and any straying away from this path (whether for decent or immoral reasons) falls under the category of fraud. Friedman's cultural values are clearly on display here, which is already displaying one of his most flamboyant values which is: directness. Throughout the paper he does not smother his beliefs in kindness and sensitivity rather he goes add far as to refer to his colleagues as "schizophrenic". In fact the entire idea of his paper is one of the most easily debated topics I could imagine. Another value effortlessly on display is his belief in collectivism. Throughout the entire paper he makes countless references to the idea that it is the executive's responsibility to look out for the people in his corporation and not society as a whole. Higher profit margins equals happier stockholders, and that's the goal of his collectivist view and apparently of business as a whole, right? Personally I do in fact see a conflict between one's ultimate social responsibility and what is best for them in terms of the business world. If there wasn't such a conflict there would not be euphemisms such as "don't mix business with pleasure" and "don't do business with family" because inevitably every business person is faced with the choice of either doing what is best for the world or their social life, or what is best for their firm, and more often then not the choice is not one in the same. Higher profit margins will always come at a high price, and that is just the cost of living in the scarce world we live in. Adam Smith may be the father of modern economics, but the scarcity of Mother Nature will always reign supreme and due to that fact executives will be faced with the choice of helping the world, or helping their exclusive club for the unforseeable future.