Economic Goals of Business and Government vs Goals of Consumers

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Economic Goals of Business and Government VS Social Goals of Consumers Milton Friedman suggests that the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits (Boardman, Sandomir and Sondak 221). While increasing profits is certainly one of the most important factors in a successful business, is it considered a social responsibility, or better yet, the only social responsibility of a corporation? Friedman seems to think so. But why is increasing profits a corporation’s social responsibility? According to Friedman, “A corporate executive is an employee of the owners of the business. He has a direct responsibility to his employers and shareholders. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society” (221). The executives of the corporation have a responsibility to the shareholders because the corporation’s money is the shareholders money. As we read in the Forbes article, the author stated: “How did the corporation’s money somehow become the shareholder’s money? Simple. That is the article’s starting assumption. By assuming away the existence of the corporation as a mere “legal fiction”, hey presto! The corporation’s money magically becomes the stockholders’ money” (Denning). What the author failed to realize is that the shareholders bought into the company, and are now owners of the company. That is how the corporation’s money somehow became the shareholder’s money. Making money will always be a corporation’s primary goal whether they want to admit it or not. But that does not necessarily mean they will ignore their social responsibility. Corporations can only achieve economic gains if they also meet their social responsibility, otherwise they will be regulated out of business or society will render them irrelevant. A
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