The Corporation2003

Ray Anderson:
I ask myself often times why so many companies subscribe to corporate social responsibility. I'm not sure it's because they necessarily want to be responsible in an ultimate way, but because they want to be identified and seen to be responsible. But who am I to judge? It's better that they belong than not belong. It's better that they make some public profession than the opposite.

Elaine Bernard:
Social responsibility isn't a deep shift because it's a voluntary tactic. A tactic, a reaction to a certain market at this point. And as the corporation reads the market differently, it can go back. One day you see Bambi, next day you see Godzilla.

Milton Friedman:
How do you define social responsible? What business is it of the corporation to decide what's socially responsible? That isn't their expertise. That isn't what their stockholders ask them to do. So I think they're going out of their range and it certainly is not democratic.

Robert Monks:
I don't really care what the chairman of General Motors thinks is an appropriate level of emissions to come out the tailpipe of General Motors' automobiles. He may have a lot of scientists, he may be a very good person, but I didn't elect him to do anything. He doesn't have any power to speak for me. These are decisions that must be made by government and not by corporations.