SOCB58H3 Lecture : SOCB58 - Lec2
Document Summary
Friedman: businesses should focus on profit, not on picking political platforms: social ends are undistinguishable from socialism. That forms the problem of equivocation: you can"t really take social ends as a concept and equate it to socialism because social ends aren"t a line of political agenda. You would be hard pressed to find a socialist agenda in western world: only people have responsibilities (ethical in this case). Problem of corporation having legal status of person: corporate executives not free to act except in terms of serving aims of owners (and shareholders) Problem of passing the buck ( it"s what the shareholders want ) but eventually someone has to take responsibility: the executives have a social responsibility to enforce owner"s agenda. Nothing written that the corporation has to advance owner/shareholder"s agenda. If executives get majority of shares, then come voting on issues, they get the biggest say.
