Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become the new rationale for
old policies of transforming private firms into public utilities—and
force them to perform whatever duties are politically attractive at any
one time. The corporation is an extremely valuable way of organizing
large numbers of people to produce goods and services efficiently—that
is, to create wealth. That wealth then flows into the hands of
shareholders, workers, customers, and suppliers, who are then empowered
to advance their own individual goals and values. To “socialize” this
process is to reduce the ability of individuals to advance their goals,
placing the values of politicians as paramount. Nothing would do more
to reduce the world’s ability to address poverty and pollution than to
force CSR onto the world economy.
