Arguments for and against Milton Friedman’s thesis

by | Oct 25, 2022 | Pharmacy

 

Discuss and analyze the arguments for and against Milton Friedman’s thesis that the only purpose of business is to make money. You will apply the arguments for and against to a specific ethical issue that you have previously discussed in a weekly discussion.

Learning outcome met by completing this project:

Identify ethical issues that arise in domestic and global business environments using an understanding of ethical concepts and of legal and business principles.

How to Set Up the Paper

Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is double-spaced, 12-point font. The format should be in memo form. The final product will be between 8-10 pages in length excluding the title page and reference page. Write clearly and concisely.

Instructions:
You serve as the assistant to the very recently appointed CEO of a prominent start-up that is beginning to grow rapidly. The new CEO, Tara Richmond, is a former general who gained visibility in the military for her outstanding leadership qualities. Since her arrival, the Board of Directors has had spirited debates on several proposals that would increase corporate profits but would work to the disadvantage of some members of the public as well as other stakeholders. Some members of the board are arguing that the only obligation the company has is to make profits for the stockholders. Other members of the board are arguing that the company has an obligation to the community and to stakeholders other than just the stockholders.

Your boss is baffled by the debate. “When I was in the military, my duties to others were clearly laid out. Here, I am unsure to whom the company owes a duty.” She turns to you for advice, requesting that you draft a memo that explains what the company’s ethical obligations are in situations like these. She asks you to start with Milton Friedman’s opinion piece in 1970, arguing that a company’s only ethical responsibility is to make profits. That can be found at http://ezproxy.umgc.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/newspapers/social-responsibility-business-is-increase/docview/2441921739/se-2?accountid=14580.

She also asks you to review a much more recent memo from the Business Roundtable that takes a more expansive view of the responsibilities of a company. The Business Roundtable consists of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, many of whom are familiar names to her. That memo can be found at https://system.businessroundtable.org/app/uploads/sites/5/2021/02/BRT-Statement-on-the-Purpose-of-a-Corporation-Feburary-2021-compressed.pdf.

You should do additional research on arguments for and against Friedman’s proposition. Using your classroom materials as well as external sources, respond to the following prompts:

Explain Milton Friedman’s arguments supporting that a company’s only obligation is to make money.

Explain the arguments contrary to Friedman’s position including where the Business Roundtable stands as well as other arguments you find in your research.

Using one of the ethical issues that you posted in classroom discussions, illustrate for the CEO, how that issue would be resolved using Friedman’s perspective and how it would be resolved using the perspective of the Business Roundtable.

Which of these positions do you find most compelling and why?
Your memo should begin with an introduction and end with a conclusion where you make recommendations to the CEO.

 

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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