In 1970, in his famous essay, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits, Milton Friedman railed against any corporate attempt to promote “desirable social ends” which he argued were “highly subversive to the capitalist system.”
Ever since, folks have argued that Friedman is wrong to make the trade-off between shareholders and the rest of society so wholly in favor of shareholders and that greater balance is required in that trade-off.
Yet the fact that they make that argument is precisely why Friedman has won the day for going on half a century, a spectacular success for a social sciences argument. Friedman has won the way a great debater wins — by cleverly framing the terms of the debate, not by brilliantly arguing the logic of the debate once it has been framed.
Author: Roger L. Martin
Source: Harvard Business Review
Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)
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