文档介绍：The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits
A minimalist approach
In the article "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits," the influential economist Milton Friedman offers a bare bones or minimalist approach to business ethics. Friedman argues that the primary responsibility of the corporate manager is to work on behalf of the owners of the corporation. In the private sector this means that the manager should be trying to maximize profits for owners. In the public and not-for-profit sectors managers should advance the aims of anization, namely, public sector or philanthropic aims.
It is important to understand that Friedman is asserting that corporate managers have a moral responsibility to advance their owners’ aims. Friedman is not just saying that the manager will be rewarded for doing so (with promotions, raises, and the like) or punished for not doing so (by demotion or firing); Friedman’s claim is that it would be morally wrong for the manager not to promote the owners’ best interests. This is because the relationship between the manager and the owner is a fiduciary or trust relationship in which one person, called an agent, acts on behalf of another, labelled the principal. In short, as an agent, you are morally bound to serve the principal’s interests and not your own.
Why does the manager have this fiduciary duty to