I just came across Justin Fox's blog post about the Citizen's United vs. Federal Election Commission this morning on the Harvard Business Review board. He compares Justice Roberts' recent ruling to what Milton Friedman had to say about corporations and comes to the compellingly-reasoned conclusion that Justice Roberts' reasoning is fatally and dangerously flawed.
Link:
http://blogs.hbr.org/...
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I came across Justin Fox's blog post about the Citizen's United vs. Federal Election Commission this morning on the Harvard Business Review board. He compares the decision to what Milton Friedman had to say about corporations and comes to the compellingly-reasoned conclusion that Justice Kennedy's reasoning is flawed. I think he and Milton Friedman have a valid argument that Justice Roberts does not appreciate the current way businesses and shareholders relate to one another.
Milton Friedman wrote in the following in the New York Times Magazine that the
"one and only social responsibility of 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 ..." Friedman contrasted this with the multiple responsibilities that an individual — such as a corporate executive — might have "to his family, his conscience, his feelings of charity, his church, his clubs, his city, his country."
As Mr. Fox writes,
"His point was that CEOs shouldn't go around imposing their own notions of social responsibility on corporations that were owned by others. Since the only interest that could possibly unite the disparate shareholders of a large corporation was making money, that was what executives should focus on during their working hours."
So essentially, Justice Roberts has just let the inmates take over the asylum.
The post makes a very interesting read, as do the links provided in it to articles by James Fallows and Felix Salmon. What it comes down to is that, because Justice Roberts does not understand the relationship described above, his decision is basically flawed.
My question is what can be done about it before it's too late?