Milton Friedman v. Michael Moore

Whether you are a businessman, a philosopher, a corporate executive or the common man; everyone has their own answer to the question “What are if any the social responsibilities of business?”. Between Milton Friedman’s article “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” and Michael Moore’s film “Roger and Me” two such arguments are presented to answer this question. Their completely opposing arguments leave them asking whether the corporate executive should have a social responsibility to the investors and stockholders or the workers.
In Milton Friedman’s article he argues that the only social responsibility of business is to maximize its profits while abiding to ethical and legal restraints. Friedman believes that only people can have social responsibility and a corporation is not a person but an “artificial person”. His most persuasive argument though is that the corporate executive has a social responsibility to the investors ...