Is Social Justice a Corporate Scam?

Abstract

The question of corporate social responsibility has been heatedly debated for a very long time. Perhaps the most prominent modern commentator on this subject was Professor Milton Friedman, who held that business had no business trying to solve social problems; it had neither the knowhow nor shareholder authority to do so. With celebrated business experience, the wunderkind Vivek Ramaswamy backs Friedman up. In adopting social justice goals, he writes, corporations waste valuable resources. wastefully; the nation, he holds, would be much better off if business stuck to its economic last. Easy to say, but is it so? For one thing, do shareholders really object to corporate social justice goals? This review presents and examines critically some of Ramaswamy’s most provocative arguments. For what it is worth, Ramaswamy provides no evidence that markets penalize corporate social justice warriors.

Keywords: Ramaswamy, social justice, profit motive, corporate responsibility

JEL Classification: L21; Y30; B50; M21