Milton Friedman's Idea Of Social Responsibility

Milton Friedman was a man who believed businesses had one sole purpose, make money. that socially responsibility was a reason for free trade necessity and order. In order to freely trade we need a reason too and that would be where outsourcing comes into play. Friedman was a strongly felt man about the needs of society and the needs of the business. While also acknowledging this need, he is also in favor of the benefits of society at large without the benefits to shareholders. Friedman’s exposition is that in order to be good people we must do things that are morally correct and not cheat the shareholders. In the 1970’s Friedman discussed his knowledge on the social responsibility of businesses. He said that the main purpose …show more content…
Morally, I do not agree with outsourcing. Although, we are saving money on both ends, we are also lying to the public. Bear with me, I think of all parties involved while considering a morally acceptable standpoint. Consider American Girl Sally, she is shopping through Walmart but will only buy American made products. She is willing to spend more for the American made because she says the Chinese made products are ‘made too cheap’. She finds a product she thought was made in China but now she sees it is made in America while the price has risen. She is jumping with joy and purchases the overpriced product, takes it home, only to realize it is the same exact thing. After doing some research she understands the product was in fact, still made in China, but assembled in America. This is outrageous that these types of things are happening every day in America with cars, toys, utensils, movies, everything. The American public is being lied to about where their product actually comes from! Secondly consider Chinese Girl Loo, Loo is a labored worker who makes 20 cents an hour. She produces hair dryers in the factory she works in. This factory has no clean air flow, no comfortable seating, no breaks, and twelve hour shifts. Loo works her tail off to produce that hair dryer in her country all for it to be labeled as an American made product because it was assembled here. These reasons …show more content…
I also see where Friedman could agree with outsourcing from the social responsibility stand point of the business. Morally, I don’t agree with either. Making as much profit as possible is ideal, but thinking about others is much more ideal. The pricing to the public needs to not increase from a fancy American sticker, little old Loo needs to not slave for our hairdryers, and Sally needs to stop being lied to about where her products are actually coming from. The need of the people purchasing the product is more important than the profit you will make. Without the customers you will not have any profit. Spending the shareholder’s money will cause them to fire you and you will then have no extra money to rebuild. All in all, I can see where this could make sense, but to me with all my other moral thoughts it does