CSR

CSR = Corporate Social Responsibility.

It makes the front page of this week's economist, yet the magasine's purpose is to shoot it down. It even goes so far as to claim that it's bad for everyone. It's quite a feat of journalism. I'll let you judge from extracts...

"Simply put, advocates of CSR work from the premise that unadorned capitalims fails to serve the public interest" (Yes, and? Doesn't everyone agree with that?)

"Thus, the selfish pursuit of profit serves a social purpose. And this is putting it mildly." (Actually, that's generally not the cause. There are at least 6 well-known categories of market failure, which encompass just about every situation you can think of, not least of which the "tragedy of the commons" whereby public goods, such as the environment, is always damaged beyond reasonable when selfish pursuit of personal profit is permitted.)

"The standard of living people in the West enjoy today is due to little else but the selfish pursuit of profit." (Really? then surely we don't need our impressive defense spendings, do we? It sounds like good economics and free market capitalism is the answer and shield to any problem.)

"There is another danger too: namely, that CSR will distract attention from genuine problems of business ethics that do need to be addressed." (oh the last resort argument! and what might those be since you failed to identify them?)

A note to a dear friend: the picture that accompanies the test is of nail polish being applied to a beast's claws ;)