The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits

In this influential essay, Milton Friedman posits that the sole social responsibility of a business is to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits, so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which means engaging in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

Friedman argues that corporate executives are agents of the shareholders and should not spend company resources on social causes without the shareholders' approval.

He believes that shareholders, customers, or employees can individually decide how to support social causes with their own money, rather than through the company's actions.