Thank you for your post regarding your agreement and support of Milton Friedman’s thought process in which companies should focus on ethically maximizing profits for shareholders only. Reading through the discussion, there are different perspectives mentioned throughout the discussion. It is agreed that companies should be making profits for its shareholders, but they should also include other forms of corporate social responsibility. Milton Friedman’s assessment of how companies should do business was a thought of the past. The incorporation of corporate social responsibility other than simply maximizing shareholder profits has become mainstream and is an important topic for running a business (Kitzmueller & Shimshack, 2012).
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In the article Accountants Save the World by Peter Bakker, one of his casual claims is that “to address current economic crises in a systematic way, we must begin to demand a return on social and natural capital as well. ”1 As a result, Bakker felt that shareholders would not recognize a company's' social accomplishments if it is not captured in financial reports. However, it could be that shareholders do not put social capital into financial statements because they believe that the only social responsibility of business is profits, like Milton Friedman. Therefore, demanding a return on social and natural capital would be ineffective if the majority of shareholders agree with Friedman's view.
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Milton Friedman revolutionized free market thinking. He believed in a free market as the best solution for the stability of an economy. Basing his theories on Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”, Friedman further developed Smith’s theory. In short, Friedman’s Neoliberalism can be described through one of his quotes on the social responsibility of business, “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” (Cooney, 2012). Friedman’s belief of the market’s perfection is based on the assumption that no actor would agree to a transaction if they did not find it fitting for themselves (Friedman, 1975).
In the article “Created Equal,” Milton Friedman argues that other people have advantages over others and that “life is not fair” but he also explains how we also benefitted from the unfairness we disapprove of. He goes in greater detail how an elite fighter such as Muhammad Ali makes millions of dollars every time he fights and steps into a ring, but people that work “normal” jobs don’t get the same amount of pay. Muhammad Ali trained and practiced his entire life to get to the status he was in, but not everyone can devote or is willing to devote their entire life and time into fighting. Friedman also considered how luck and chance plays a role and the way we make decisions, he said that people with an equal amount of chips can be big winners or big losers depending on the cards that they get by chance and how they decide to play the cards they get. Friedman also argues how people the people that make their own choices run bearing the risk and consequences of their decision.
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In today’s modern society technology plays a huge role in everyday life. Technology has a big position in education. Today students use laptops for school on an everyday basis to take notes, work on assignments, and research. Many people agree that, when it comes to education, technology can either be very harmful or very helpful. Timothy D. Snyder, a history professor at the University of Yale has written five award-winning books.
Corporate social responsibility means that businesses have wider responsibilities than simply to their shareholders – they also have responsibilities towards other stakeholders, as well as the environment. Scholars such as Robert Solomon believe that businesses should take on these responsibilities, as they have a duty to behave ethically. Solomon believed that a person should follow their own personal values and attempt to stay ethical no matter whether they are at home or at work. Others, such as Milton Friedman and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, argue against the idea of corporate social responsibility, believing that the only responsibility of a business is to increase its profits for its shareholders. Friedman went on to argue that for a business to take money from their profits to fund corporate social responsibility projects is equivalent to stealing money from shareholders and is therefore unethical.
Davis (as cited by Khalidah, Zulkufly, & Lau, 2014) defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as “… the firm’s consideration of, and response to, issues beyond the narrow economic, technical, and legal requirements of the firm. It is the firm’s obligation to evaluate in its decision-making processes the effects of its decisions on the external social system in a manner that will accomplish social benefits along with the traditional economic gains, which the firm seeks. It means that social responsibility begins where the law ends. A firm is not being socially responsible if it merely complies with the minimum requirements of the law, because this is what any good citizen would do.” A firm will not survive without the support of both the stakeholders and shareholders, thus the CSR proposes the indication which stats that a firm can never exist In a vacuum (Khalidah et.