Csr Arguments of Broad View and Narrow View

In my view the statement ‘the social responsibility of business is to increase profit’ is true to a point, however, I believe a corporation’s responsibilities spread beyond just maximising profits. The ‘Narrow View’ argues that profit maximisation is the only objective for a business. Levitt.T wrote, “In the end business has only two responsibilities- to obey the elementary canons of face-to-face civility (honesty, good faith and so on) and to seek material gain”. Milton Friedman argued that business has no social responsibilities other than to maximise profit. Friedman also argues that the corporation is an artificial person and can, therefore, only have "artificial responsibilities." "Business" is apparently an even more artificial construct and therefore we are left with just proprietors and corporate executives who can actually be responsible. Because the function of business organisation is to make money, the owners of corporations employ executives to accomplish the goals, thus managers are obliged to act in the interest of owners. According to Friedman, executives have social corporate responsibilities beyond pursuit of profit. They must spend shareholder money for general social interest such as taxing the owners and spending taxes on social causes. (Friedman, 1970) “There is one and only one social responsibility of business is to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” If there was no initiation of force, there is nothing wrong with profit. However, at the same time, there are many instances of initiation of force that give businesses, and the market, the illusion of profit. Most of the time, these initiations of force come in the form of which creates regulation benefiting one company at the disadvantage of free competition or some sort of subsidy which takes money from taxpayers.