The Social Responsibility of Business

In "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits" by Milton Friedman, Friedman's main point is that a business's key responsibility is to make money, not help in social affairs. He states that the corporate executive's key responsibility is to be the mediator between the owners, the stockholders and workers; it is his or her job to do what is best financially for those three groups first and foremost. The executive is an employee, not a civil servant; Friedman argues that taking money from their pockets to do something that is socially acceptable is fraud; taking money from the business for the executives own means, even if they are socially considered just. He also made an argument for why the executives shouldn't do this; even if they believe in it. If he or she wants to spend their money and time helping on social issues that is fine because social issues are for the individual.

Friendman's important cultural values are:

1. Collectivism- he continually mentions that the executive has a duty to the people in the business: the owners, stockholders and employees. This is a very closed view of collectivism, Friendman believes in taking care of ones own (the people within the corporation), not necessarily everyone else (society).
2. Individualism- Friendman speaks about how the reason why the executive should not support social goals is to protect oneself from being fired from higher powers. He writes that in a private competitive enterprises, people are responsible for their actions and thus need to look out for themselves, not the collective society.
3. Monochronic Time- I know that he did not say much if anything about time but he does seem like the kind of person who would be very diligent about time.
4. Stability, Tradition and Risk Aversion- Friendman obviously is not for going with the shift in the American economic market that is trending towards a more socially aware business; he is doing this because of the risk of both the business failing and of the self, the worry of being fired due to spending business funds.
5. Directness- the article is incredibly blunt; Friendman calls some of his fellow businessmen borderline schizophrenic. He wants to get his point across, and he takes a very blunt approach to doing so.  

I do see a conflict between business and social responsibility in the short run. The short run is all about making profits and social responsibilities would take a backseat to making money. I see Friedman's point about the executive needing to do what is best for the business; if the owners and stockholders want pure profit, it is the executive's job to make money, not take money from these people for a cause they don't believe in.
However, I think that in this short run argument, if the company is founded on the principles of social responsibility, then it would be a different story. Like in the example of how hospitals' main goals are to provide a service, this business would have two goals: making money and helping others. Then I believe that the executive would be irresponsibly using funds if he or she didn't help socially.

Now, that is in the short run, in the long run I see no conflict with  the so-called dichotomy of  profit and social responsibility. Being environmentally responsible helps our natural resources be of a higher quality; if all of our cotton farms are poisoned with waste from a factory, that will be bad in the long run economic scheme. Hiring the chronically unemployed helps in the long run because it makes a more efficient use of our labor resources, these people become workable again and are able to learn new skills while employed that help us in the future. The list like this goes on for a while; helping others will in turn help ourselves in the future.

When people like Friedman do not look into the future and only current profit, they of course will come to the above mentioned conclusions. This present-viewing mindset seems to be a rather pervasive mindset in America today. I personally believe that a shift towards a more future-viewing one will be necessary in order for our society to advance economically.