Milton Friedman

short

Week 1 Short Writing Assignment #1

Milton Friedman believed that the social responsibility of businesses is to increase profitability. Milton believed that the purpose of the business was not to provide employment, eliminate discrimination, avoid pollution, help the community, or make life better for workers. Milton believed that businesses should not have any responsibility because only people can be responsible. Milton believes that being socially responsible limits the profits of a business.

Arrow and Calkins & Wight have several criticisms that they raised against Milton Friedman. They criticize that Milton Friedman limits the responsibility of the business. They feel that Milton Freidman doesn’t hold business accountable and that his main focus is profiting. They argue that Milton does not account for a lot of the virtues and ethics that are needed to operate a business. They criticized Milton Friedman’s view that the manager’s main job is to gain profit. These criticisms were key points that stood out when reading the articles written by Arrow and Calkins & Wight.

The criticism that stands out the most is the businesses not having any social

Responsibility. Milton Friedman states: “The social responsibility of business is to

increase its profits”

… 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 in the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition, without deception or fraud (Friedman 1970).

Milton believed that the main focus of businesses needed to be activities that generate profit, which is highly criticized by Arrow and Calkins & Wight.

After reading Milton Friedman’s article I do not defend Milton Friedman view that businesses should not have social responsibility. I believe that a corporation should have responsibility. I think that a business that is not held accountable for...