Corporate Social Responsibility

1
Corporate Social Responsibility

• Liberty means responsibility. That is why most
  men dread it. (George Bernard Shaw)

2
The Stakeholder Perspective

• The Business Roundtable
• http//www.brtable.org/
• The Roundtable believes that the basic interests
  of business closely parallel the interests of the
  American people, who are directly involved as
  consumers, employees,shareholders, and suppliers.
  Thus, chief executives, although they speak as
  individuals, have responsibilities which relate
  to many factors -- including jobs, products,
  services, and return on investment -- that affect
  the economic well-being of all Americans.

3
Milton Friedman

• "The view has been gaining widespread acceptance
  that corporate officials...have a "social
  responsibility" that goes beyond serving the
  interests of stockholders or their members...Few
  trends could so thoroughly undermine the very
  foundations of our free society as the acceptance
  by corporate officials of a social responsibility
  other than to make as much money for their
  shareholders as possible."

4
Pareto Optimality
Marginal Cost
Marginal Revenue
5
Is Friedman Correct?

• Is a corporate officer morally required to
  maximize profit?

6
A Not So Simple Question in the Stem Cell Debate

• When does life begin?

7
Normative Philosophy
8
A First Principle is Required

• The United States Constitution
• WE the people of the United States, in Order to
  form a more
  perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic
  Tranquility, provide for the common defence,
  promote the general Welfare, and secure the
  Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
  Posterity, do ordain and establish this
  Constitution for the United States of America.