Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

We are close to completing our in-depth review of Milton Friedman’s classic essay on business ethics. Here, we will focus on paragraphs of 24 to 27 of his essay, where Friedman describes CSR as “hypocritical window dressing” and as “a … Continue reading →

We are still reviewing Milton Friedman’s 1970 essay on business ethics. Previously, Friedman had argued that CSR initiatives operate as a kind of stealth tax on shareholders and that taxes should be imposed via ordinary political processes. To his credit, … Continue reading →

As we mentioned at the end of our previous post, we have now completed our review of the first half of Milton Friedman’s classic essay on business ethics. To sum up our review thus far, Professor Friedman is probably right … Continue reading →

We reviewed in our previous post the logic of Professor Friedman’s “principal-agent argument” in his classic critique of CSR (corporate social responsibility). To sum up, although the structure of his principal-agent argument appears to be sound (corporate managers must act … Continue reading →

We shall now proceed with our review of Milton Friedman’s 1970 essay on business ethics. Professor Friedman returns to his principal-agent argument in paragraphs 7 to 10 of his essay, where he draws a fundamental distinction between (a) the social … Continue reading →

We now proceed to paragraph six of Milton Friedman’s 1970 essay on business ethics. Whatever theory of business ethics you subscribe to (profit-maximization or stakeholder theory), this short paragraph is perhaps the most important one of the entire essay, so … Continue reading →

Thus far, we have reviewed in great detail the first five paragraphs of Professor Friedman’s classic essay on business ethics. In the court of popular opinion, these first few paragraphs constitute Friedman’s “opening statement” about the proper role of business … Continue reading →

[Update (10/22): We have revised the second paragraph of this post.] Thus far, we have revisited the first two paragraphs of Professor Friedman’s scathing critique of corporate social responsibility or CSR. (To sum up: we dismissed the opening paragraph as … Continue reading →

Now that we have brushed off the outlandish first paragraph of Professor Friedman’s classic essay on business ethics (see our previous post), let’s turn to the second paragraph. Unlike the ad hominem nature of the first paragraph, this second paragraph … Continue reading →

Now that we have introduced Milton Friedman’s classic essay on business ethics (see our previous post), let’s jump right in, shall we? Professor Friedman’s first paragraph is by far his weakest one, for it contains some outlandish and sensational claims. … Continue reading →