Business vs. the Environment
Business today has so many responsibilities. Aside from making a profit, they are forced to take on a different responsibility, one that involves the environment. Even though, they already have many regulations set by the government, they are still being asked to answer to the call of helping out the rest of society take of nature. This essay will discuss the pros and cons of corporate responsibility for the environment through the agent-of-society and agent-of-capital views.
The agent-of-society view holds that corporate managers are prima facie obligated to consider the interests of everyone who is likely to be affected by what managers decide to do. With this view in mind, Michael Hoffman states, “Corporate managers should be held morally responsible for going beyond considerations of profits, law, and market morality to try to do what they can to help solve our most pressing environmental problems.” In his article, Hoffman argues that business must creatively find ways to become part of the solution, instead of the problem. Business should try to become more environmentally friendly and think of ways to help mitigate the many environmental problems we have. Consumers argue they have no control over or say in whether business provides environmentally friendly products or not. They argue that it’s not up to them “how the products are made, how the services are provided, or how the legislation is enacted.” Although, some businesses have tried to come up with environmentally friendly products but they find that consumers are unwilling to pay extra for them. He thinks corporations can and must develop a conscience, including an environmental conscience. Like the owner of the paper company, business should think of ways to stop the pollution and harm to the environment and take action quickly so that they can set an example for other businesses to follow.
One really good point that Hoffman made was that to ensure the survival of the planet, society needs the cooperation of all its players to solve its most urgent problems. But businesses don’t view this as something profitable to them so they don’t spend the time, money, or resources to try to solve the problems. They feel as if this is a problem that the government needs to find appropriate solutions to. Businesses are not ready or capable to take risks or ...
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...hat we should not adopt an agent-of-society view of corporate responsibility for the environment. There are three reasons why I have come to this conclusion. First, although Hoffman’s idea of society coming together to help save the environment and our planet is a good one, it will never work. There is not one single idea that society as a whole can agree on, especially not the environment, and as Friedman said, we will just have to conform to what everyone else agrees on. Second, even though we are all citizens, we tend to think of ourselves more as consumers because we are only focused on our well being and future. We don’t think of our every move as being something that will affect the environment or society. And lastly, I think Friedman is right in saying that business’s only social responsibility is to use its resources to engage in increasing profits as long as they stay within the rules of the game. That is the sole function of a business. Government can keep changing the rules and adding to them but business will not go above and beyond what is necessary for them to maintain their profits. These reasons go to show that the agent-of-society view is not a good one to adopt.
A business should make sure its methods of production are not negatively affecting its employees and that all the people in the business are happy and willing to work. Also, a business should make sure that its methods of production are not producing any waste on land or water or air pollution, for these negatively affect society. A business that cares about it’s influence on the environment, and its consumers is bound to make a difference. For example: General Mills wants to reduce the amount of energy it uses. In order to do this, they had energy monitors installed into some of their equipment in one of their manufacturing plants. The result: General Mills saved around six hundred thousand dollars (James). Profit can be obtained faster by a business that is looked upon as a positive influence on the environment and its employees. Overall, a business should be careful about how it produces its products and think about society’s health before it makes a decision, for if it doesn’t, the liability for damage is a much greater price to
Once a person graduates from high school they are left with a difficult decision, wither to go to college or not. Some families this is not an option, their kid will go no matter what, but many students do not want to go to school and have so much student debt by the time they finish that they will have to pay off that they decide that college is not worth it. According to Craig Smith in his article in Education Digest he says, “too many families cannot afford to send their children to college so the student is left with making the decision on wither to go to college and collect debt or just skip college altogether” (Smith 42). He has a good point. Too many students feel like they have to pay so much yet they are not really getting much out of it. Smith later on in his article states, “We must stop balancing our state and institutional budgets on the backs of students and families” (Smith 46). School should not be all about money, it should be about helping the students get the education that they need so they can make it out in the big world. If a student is so worried about how they are going to pay their school bill they are not going to be focusing on their class work and it ...
The second chapter of this book advocates students to attend college, even if they must take on a moderate amount of student loan debt. They give statistics showing the tremendous gap in wages between a college graduate and a non-college graduate. The third chapter of this book argues the opposite viewpoint of the second chapter. The author states that the cost of college today is too high and that there are too many college graduates flooding the job market causing many of them to go unemployed or seek low level jobs that do not pay enough to pay off their student loans. Both of these chapters will help me to show the two main ...
Children of the twenty first century spend nearly 13 years in school, preparing for what is college, one of the only ways to achieve the so-called “American Dream”. College is the best way to start an advanced career and go further than one possibly could if college degrees were not available, allowing people to achieve their view of the American Dream; whether it be large houses, shiny cars, multiple kids, or financial comfort, college is the stepping stone to achieve the American Dream. But all great things come with a price, college dragging along debt. Students who attend college struggle to find ways to pay for it, leading to applying for student loans. These loans a great short term, paying for the schooling at the moment but eventually the money adds up
In this essay we are taking a look at the famous Milton Friedman's essay "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profit ". The following paper is an attempt to critically evaluate the article in consideration of Freeman Stakeholder Theory.
For generations, college degrees provided a ladder of economic opportunity, however, recent rise in student debt has called into question the value of higher education. With loans becoming the primary source for accessing college, cohorts of young adults are finding themselves having to start their post college life in higher amounts of debt than previous generations.
For many people in the United States, going to college is considered a rite of passage. However, in recent years with student loan debt increasing, many believe that college is actually not the way to go anymore. Those who think that college is not a worthwhile investment are simply choosing to ignore the facts. A college degree in Americas today is becoming more and more necessary to be successful in the workforce. Student loan debts often intimidate people into believing that college is not the right path for them, but in today’s economy, a college degree is paramount.
Today’s 21st century has brought forth many changes, both positive and negative, as well as, an extremely diverse society whose different needs and wants must be met. Therefore, in an attempt to sustain a balance and comprehend today’s challenges, society as well as, businesses tend to adopt and incorporate certain methods, systems, and theories. As a matter of fact, in the past, the Milton Friedman’s theory of corporate social responsibility was adopted and very influential (Friedman, 1962). The Milton Friedman’s theory stated that the obligation of a business was to maximize its profits, and that business executives had a responsibility to their shareholders rather than to the greater good of society (Friedman, 1962). However, since things and people have evolved throughout the years, the perception of Milton Friedman’s theory has been impacted. Therefore, in this paper, one will further discuss the Milton Friedman Goal of the Firm, its relevancy as it applies to apprehending the purpose of a business in society, and whether or not the government or society portrays a role in expanding the Friedman discussion.
Getting a college education nowadays is almost necessary in our society, as without one it may be difficult to obtain and retain a high paying job which can support you and your family in the long term. However, while a college education is becoming more necessary to have it is also becoming more difficult to obtain, with the average tuition to attend a university exceeding up to $40,000 a year (Siegel, Why College Is So Expensive, And How To Fix It). Even with the vast amount of financial aid and scholarship opportunities given to help, it will still leave the average student in six figures of debt by the end of their four year degree. And because of the large debt accumulated by the time you graduate, it has strayed many away from the path
Milton Friedman presents a compelling argument in “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits” by arguing that businesses need to focus only on increasing their profits and integrating social responsibility will only hurt them as a company. Since “only people can have responsibilities” (Friedman 52), Friedman argues that businesses as a whole do not have any type of real responsibilities because there is not a singular person for these responsibilities to fall on. Corporate executives are people as well and may feel they have social responsibilities to society but these “are the social responsibilities of individuals, not of business” (51). In terms of corporations, the businessmen are the ones that hold the responsibility of the company. Friedman argues that the only responsibility these managers hold is to those who own the corporation, the shareholders. If the individuals themselves want to contribute to social responsibility they must do it with their own money in their personal lives, but they should not use social responsibility in
Covey & Brown (2001) “the role of business in society has progressed over the years, from being primarily concerned with profit for sharehold¬ers to a stakeholder and community approach with a focus on corporate social responsibility”
Business organizations should act responsible towards society as it will benefit society, culture, economical condition and environmental issues as well. In other words, business organization are currently only focusing on their core objective that is only maximizing their profit but this profit maximization comes with a cost to the society like over exploiting resources, polluting environment, producing products which are not environmental friendly. If business organization acts socially responsible they will help the society to develop.
The first discussion question posed was, “How does Dr. Friedman characterize discussions on the “social responsibilities of business”? Why (Jennings, 2009, p. 79)? Friedman (1970) characterized the discussions on social responsibilities as one hundred percent unadulterated socialism. Friedman (1970) characterized these discussions in that manner because he felt that a corporate executive should focus solely on making profits and not on social aspects. He mentioned how people who conduct and express themselves in this fashion are positively reinforcing and supporting the actions of individuals that have been weakening the foundational blocks of free society. Friedman (1970) posed a question which was the crux of his 1970 article “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits” where he investigated the true contextual meaning of what responsibilities mean to businesses. Friedman describes how businesses cann...
...can be an arbiter of business responsibility to society through the application of tax incentives or tax credits. In good corporate governance, the management should be able to meet their social responsibilities, these include making sure that their products are not hazardous to people and to the environment, sharing their profits for the good of the community as a natural person or human being would do, donating to social causes, organizing activities to benefit the community.
Friedman’s views are that business’ main responsibility is to maximize shareholders wealth and that in doing so, they are being socially responsible. He also contends that corporations are not people and therefore they cannot be responsible for social issues.