‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ as an Economic and Ideological Sellout
Back on March 3, Townhall’s Tom Borelli got in some good whacks at the “Corporate Social Responsibility” movement and one of its craven collaborators that will not go unnoticed at this blog:
Karl Marx once remarked, “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.” However, Marx had no idea the rope would be corporate social responsibility (CSR) and not greed.
In keeping with CSR doctrine, CEOs are opening their doors to activist groups with great fanfare in hopes of maximizing both “the social good” and corporate profits. Regrettably, these CEO’s are maximizing neither.
Social activists are not concerned with corporate profits, shareholder returns or economic growth. Their sole mission is to transform corporations into agents to advance their social and political agenda.
By allowing social activists to influence business decisions, CEOs are choosing socialism over capitalism and by doing so; they are undermining the very foundations of our free society.
….. Not taking any chances with the free-market system, (General Electric CEO Jeff) Immelt wants government regulation to guarantee (GE’s “green” subsidiary) Ecomagination’s success. GE is a member of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) – a coalition of corporations and environmental activist groups “that have come together to call on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Immelt’s rent seeking math is simple: limits on carbon dioxide will drive sales for his products and the Left will adore him like Al Gore.
So now Inmelt has joined the globaloney chorus for cravenly obvious reasons, giving it an aura of legitimacy it doesn’t deserve. Borelli properly notes that any gains GE achieves by allowing itself to be co-opted by the enviros will first, hurt many of its other businesses (Borelli believes this is already occurring), and second, hurt corporate economic performance in general — leading to yet more temptations of CEOs at other companies to sell out for short-term PR gain.
The tradeoff is a stark one — short-term acclaim for the cynical few in return for longer-term stagnation — or worse. Frankly, Jeff Inmelt has no moral right to make that deal.
