Marc Sidwell writes on the 52nd anniversary of the publication of Milton Friedman’s New York Times essay “The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits”:
Friedman’s full-throated attack on the social responsibility of business was shocking even at the time, but he was no lightweight commentator peddling synthetic outrage. Within six years, he would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. Five decades later, it is hard to deny that Friedman was on to something. Stakeholder capitalism has gone from niche concern to the dominant fashion. It is trumpeted by both the Business Roundtable and the world’s biggest investment managers, including Larry Fink of BlackRock. ESG rent-seekers are raking in cash faster than a gold-rush whorehouse, while ambitious Republicans make hay over the excesses of “woke capital.” But many don’t see the larger threat.
Read the whole thing here. (And you can read Friedman’s essay here.)