Milton Friedman is a well-known economist and writer from Brooklyn, New York. His influential writings have sparked much debate about the limits of a business's duty to fulfill its social responsibilities within a society. A famous quote from his book Capitalism and Freedom states that “there is one and only one social responsibility of business: to use its resources”. and engage in activities intended to increase profits as long as it remains within the rules of the game.” He believes that a company's managers or CEOs have a "direct responsibility" to their employees, i.e. its shareholders, and should therefore aim to "make as much money as possible while complying with the rules fundamentals of society”, both in law and ethical customs. Friedman argues that, for example, a business executive has a responsibility to his employers, which is generally to make as much money as possible for the company while conforming to the laws and ethical customs of the company. This employer, outside of his work, can devote his time and money to certain charities that he considers worthy and, although these are social responsibilities, they are the social responsibilities of the individual and not of the company. Friedman, in a sense, explains how entities have responsibilities; it is the people who have the responsibilities. In some ways, a corporation is too vague an entity to assume responsibility. Once again, he believes “the key point is that as a business manager, the manager is the agent of the individuals who own the company…”. And his primary responsibility is to them. The only responsibility a director should have is to his shareholders and not to the corporation or any other interest group or public good. And so if the shareholder interest...... middle of paper...... this idealism that a company needs to have its own interest. In a heated debate, a student described how an Ohio man could not pay his electric bill and so had his electricity cut off because it was not profitable for them to keep it on, subsequently l The man died. The student also goes on to demonstrate another argument against his views regarding the famous car manufacturer Ford. Ford, he says, produced the Ford Pinto knowing that in any rear-end collision the car would subsequently explode due to the failure of installing a $13 plastic block in front of the gas tank. He explained that Ford's internal memo estimated it would cost 200 lives per year, at a cost of $200,000 per life. They then calculated the cost of installing this plastic block to prevent this from happening, which ended up costing more than the cost of these people's lives..