Milton Friedman and Maximizing Profits

Outline

  • social responsibility is against the interest of the business
    • the ones taking on the responsibility would be imposing taxes on the other people in the business and then deciding how the taxes are spent
      • this is wrong in two ways
        • political principle: these are government functions, it is using the political mechanism
          • acceptance of social responsibility is thus accepting the political mechanism more generally, it will lead to collectivism
        • has bad consequences:
          • the people spending the taxes are not experts on social objective spending
          • the business would be outcompeted by businesses not adhering to social responsibilities
        • thus the business only has the social responsibility to maximize profits in free competition without deception or fraud