“Business managers appropriate shareholder wealth when they use corporate resources to further their personal political beliefs, even when pursuing what they consider a “socially responsible” or “moral” agenda. The business of American business is business, not ideology.”
Citation: Project 2025, Section 5.4: Federal Trade Commission, Adam Candeub, page 903, paragraph 5
Context:
I don’t buy this argument. Nobody forces shareholders to invest in one company or another. If you disagree with one company’s philosophy, you don’t have to give them money. It’s called voting with your wallet.
Business ethicists call this the “separation fallacy” – the idea that business can be separated from ethics (they argue that it can’t.) I could definitely make an argument that business practices which are harmful to the environment or to consumers in the name of profit are unethical. At heart, humans are social creatures. Most of us don’t want to have relationships with – or do business with – people that we perceive as unethical.
Full contextual analysis of Section 5.4: Federal Trade Commission here.