The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its ProfitsMilton Friedman takes the position that corporations cannot be socially responsible, only people can have responsibilities. In continuing with this thought, he then suggest that social responsibility is then directed at the corporate executive of a business, not the business as a whole. The corporate executive has primary responsibility to his employers to conduct business as they see fit, and manage the business to create the most profit while following the “basic rules of society”.
Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970