Progressive or Deceitful?

In Capitalism and Freedom (1962), the economist Milton Friedman once accused corporate social responsibility of being a ‘fundamentally subversive doctrine’. In Friedman’s view, the business of business is business, not political causes, and certainly not progressive ones. It is common knowledge that businesses aim to achieve one target, profit, and they are willing to make tactical changes to ensure it. For example, past years have bore witness to the shift in fast food industries who now cater to the vegan populations, offering ‘Vegan meat’ and all other nonsense brandings that aim to attract their targeted demographics.

Another famous example would be the sudden ‘Eco-friendly’ branding taking the smartphone world by storm. It all started with Apple, who made the “environmentalist decision” to remove chargers from the boxes of their new iPhones going forward. They explained that old chargers were becoming more hazardous to the environment due to the one-year phone cycle all OEM's follow. The catch with this progressive move is that Apple decided to sell those chargers to those who still needed them for $40, which defeats the whole purpose of cutting them in the first place. Soon after, Samsung and co followed suit, removing chargers, and re-selling them to customers. As a customer, do not be fooled by these moves, they only aim to sweet talk and show care when in truth, there is none.