Homework on Friedman, The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits


All answers must be in your own words. I will not accept handwritten or emailed homework.


1. According to Friedman, when a corporate executive makes business decisions that are not in the company's interests, this is equivalent to imposing and spending taxes. How so? (2pts)

2. Why is Friedman opposed to these "taxes" on a principled level? (2pts)

3. Why, according to Friedman, will these "taxes" have bad consequences? (2pts)

4. Assume that the behavior of drug companies described in the Eyre reading is legal (in other words, even though doctors are writing illegal prescriptions, the drug companies themselves are not legally responsible and are not breaking any laws).
Imagine that an executive for a drug company was thinking about preventing their company from being part of the opiate epidemic. Friedman would be opposed to this, for the reasons given in your answers to 2 and 3. How plausible is Friedman's view of this case? Why? (2pts)

4. In your opinion, when is an executive morally obligated to make decisions that benefit their company? State your view as two conditionals: If [conditions] then it is morally wrong for an executive to make a decision that does not benefit their company; if [those conditions are not met] then it is morally permissible. (2pts)