According to Milton Friedman, the sole responsibility of the business is to utilize its resources and maximize its profits as long as it is conducting the business in free and open competition without deception or fraud. In his view, he ignored socially desirable function of the corporate social responsibility. He supported his argument by arguing that corporate executive is responsible to the firm's owner(s) and any action conducted for the social purpose incurs a cost to somebody else. For instance, if the corporate executive decides to spend money on catering for social interest, he would spend stakeholders', customers', or employee's money (Friedman 33). Therefore, these three parties could separately spend their money for social interest if they deem it fit.
According to Thomas Homer-Dixon, the contemporary word is challenged by five forces that he refer to them as "tectonic stresses." These stresses include energy stress, economic stress, environmental stress, demographic stress, and climate stress (Homer-Dixon 11). He argues two factors that multiply the impact of these stresses include increasing speed and connectivity and emerging small group to destroy people and power (Homer-Dixon 13). He also criticizes those "unrealistically optimistic" leaders who think that the modern technology and human brains are capable of countering the environmental stress. Therefore, he urges every leader may it in business or politic to take responsibility for minimizing such stress.
As expounded above, the Friedman argument of social responsibility is wrong. Homer-Dixon points out that some of the factors such as the gap between rich and poor, pollution, land damages, and others are the forces that are deteriorating the today's society. Such factors are largely contributed by firms and industries, and enhance their responsibility to mitigate them. Friedman's argument on stakeholders, customers, and employees to spend their own money separately on social interest is inaccurate. This is because; customers have different interests and may conflict on achieving social responsibility given that it is almost impossible for a sole customer to execute some decisions.
Works cited
Friedman, M. The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times, 1970.
Homer-Dixon, T. The upside of down: Catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf. 2006. (Chapter 1: Tectonic stresses)
