The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits, as to Milton Friedman - Book Report/Review Example

Name Institution Instructor Course Date Milton Friedman and Edward Freeman According to milton friedman, increasing profitability is the business' social responsibility.... With reference to what businesspersons believe, the concern of business is not about mere generation of profits, but also has a responsibility of promoting desirable social ends (Freeman 232).... In this paper, I will seek to develop arguments based on the thoughts of milton friedman and Edward Freeman and establish who is right among the two of them....

This is evident in his 1970 article, “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” published by The New York Times Magazine in 1970, where he claimed “businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades” (Friedman, 1970: 1).... milton friedman has been a major proponent of anti CSR movement, and has written articles, which are considered as seminal pieces of work against CSR and corporations that promote CSR....

This notion has been fuelled by personalities such as Friedman who argue that the social responsibility of business lies in the maximization of profits so long as it is within the precincts of the rules of engagement (Friedman, 1970).... To this end, Friedman argues that the decision concerning the social responsibility of business should be validated based on agreement with all the affected parties.... hellip; Sentiments by economist such as milton friedman have attempted to assert that profitability is the core agenda for businesses (Friedman, 1970)....

According to milton friedman, the only duty of a business is to ensure maximum profit, and not worry about social responsibility.... According to him, the main social responsibility of a business is to ensure maximum profit, as long as it follows the rules of society.... The notion that the responsibilities of business enterprises to society go past that of profit making for the shareholders has been here for many years.... Argument 1 It is the responsibility of the corporate executive to generate as much profit for the business while complying with the fundamental societal rules....

milton friedman first described the concept of CSR during the 1970s, where he appeared to discredit the concept.... Stakeholders' interests are fundamental elements of business, as they continually affect numerous business activities.... Friedman describes the purpose of business as that of utilising the available resources and engaging in activities aimed at increasing company profits.... With the sole responsibility of making profits, corporates lack other responsibilities as presented by stakeholders and owners....

The article “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” by Milton Friedman discusses one important proposition that the acts of social responsibility by the organization shall be directed towards achieving profits for the organizations as long as the firm remains within the rules.... However, relying on the idea of a free market and Adam Smith's views about a free market, the role of business in terms of social responsibility has been to increase its profits by remaining within the legal boundaries of doing business in society....

“the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.... Another article, written by milton friedman, raises the question social responsibility to have a direct influence on corporate profits.... In this case, he distinguishes executive's corporate social responsibility from his own one by defining the core interest of his activity in serving employers and customers (Friedman 2).... Furthermore, political dimension appears in the fact that social responsibility is the result of socialist perspective, which says that politicians not executives are responsible for sharing limited resources (Friedman 3)....

The paper "the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits by Milton Friedman" undermines the popularized concept of corporate social responsibility.... Actions by business organizations do not amount to social responsibility and are not conducted with the required moral standards.... nbsp;… The author argues that individuals, and not organizations, can be socially responsible and that the current practices that are considered as social responsibility are unchecked expenditure of other stakeholders' resources....