Economist Debate Video

I thought you made some excellent points Will. I was particularly convinced by your arguments about the problems of entrusting ethical choices to individuals on the merits of their business abilities; less so by your assertions that if something is a worthwhile area for attention then entrepreneurs will find it and exploit it (I may have paraphrased this in a way that confuses your meaning but essentially I see this as an area where you are putting too much faith in the markets alone). I thought it was primarily your arguments that swayed the debate though and I enjoyed it.

This article probably bears on the debate about CSR. In general I'm very sympathetic to Will's arguments for the proposition, but as this article makes unavoidably clear, corporations are social institutions, and the life of society WILL impinge.

Will,

Which paper cited the "only ~10% of shareholders would approve their corporation's charitable giving/CSR programs if they had a vote"? I am writing a paper on corporate charitable giving and that study would be very helpful for my thesis.

Pretty much awesome Mr. WIlkinson. You make shareholder theory of the firm and 'ol Milton's famous business ethics paper fresh again.

I wanted to say thought that I recently asked a respected businessman how he justifies his philanthropy in the context of Friedman's article "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits."
His response was enlightening.
Primarily, he passed credit to the notion that challenging Milton Friedman's work is usually not in accordance with intelligence, however in today's mixed economy a business must act not only to create value but also to convince society that it is creating value.

I was going to ask if we'd ever see video of last year's debate on happiness, but I followed the "MORE VIDEO" link and found it here.

Good stuff.