Are Profits the only Profits of Business

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The company earns profits from this program by getting cheap, trained labor straight out of high school. The social benefits are that low-income students have the opportunity to learn skills not available to them and an improvement in the educational system. This shows that charitable giving can be profitable for businesses because it acts as an investment for the company’s future. The company gains from this investment while helping the community as well. There are also other profitable gains from charitable giving. Some of which include tax benefits, improved public relations, and improvement in employee morale (Porter, 2002).

When business practices are not socially responsible, the market and government respond to these actions to help correct the issue. For example, citizens voiced their concerns about the poor air quality in the United States during the 1950’s due to pollutants from the automobile industry, thus prompting the government to launch the clean air act in 1963 (Melosi, 2010). From then on, automobile manufacturers had to follow government regulations which reduced emissions and led to cleaner air in the United States (Melosi, 2010). This shows that when businesses do not act socially responsible, public and government forces will correct the discrepancies to meet social standards. If they do not follow the regulations, they will go out of business. So the only profitable solution for them is to conform to what is socially acceptable.

Whether businesses are making social impacts to make profit, or are making profits to make social impacts, they are working towards making profits for either reason. With these profits, they are also helping society. This confirms that the only social responsibility of businesses is to make profits and that “profits are the only business of business”.