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Milton Friedman's Views On Social Responsibility Of Business

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Social responsibility of business has been a debated topic for years. The ideas of different businessmen have had effects on the direction of business in this period. This essay analyses two texts, which have Milton Friedman’s arguments about social responsibility of business and John Friedman’s ideas about Milton Friedman’s, by comparison and contrast method and includes this writer’s evaluation.

Milton Friedman’s text is about the effects of the name of social responsibility on a private property system including executives, stockholders, employees and customers. He gives us some assumptions and examples of their potential results and impacts on corporations to express his ideas clearly. In addition, he makes comparisons between being an individual and an executive and mentions the sharp differences between their responsibilities. The writer’s purpose is making it distinguishable and understandable for readers if there is a reality of the doctrine of the social responsibility for business. He aims to show …show more content…

He mentioned that just individuals have responsibility and a corporation is an artificial person and so it has artificial responsibilities, however the similar situation cannot be obtained for whole business. He says that, firstly, we should ask what it refers for whom to examine the doctrine of social responsibility of business.
He believes that a corporate executive is an employee of the business in a private property sys¬tem and his employers are his re¬sponsibility and says “That responsi¬bility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while con¬forming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.” The primary responsibility of corporate executive is as an agent for owners of corporation or individuals who constitute charity

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