As stated by Friedman, the business’s actions do not have to be founded upon the basis for societal well-being. Instead, the sole purpose of a business is to maximize the desires of its stakeholders, in most cases the desire being profit. I found an article from 1999 which discussed the “social responsibility” aspects of two of the world’s most well-known multinationals: Disney and Mattel. Having outsourced its production to firms in China, both corporations had come under scrutiny regarding sweatshop-like conditions in its factories. In response to this social outcry, Disney carried out thousands of inspections and even cancelled its partnership with one of its largest factories that failed to meet the criteria. Mattel implemented a similar stance. This is where Friedman’s mentioned “cloak” of social responsibility comes into play. Honestly, how many people would be convinced that the corporate executives at Disney or Mattel suddenly awoke with the decision that, under their corporations’ name, they simply wanted to improve the lives of their offshore employees? Because to me, there is no evidence to support than a corporation actually seeks to assist anything else but itself and its interests. Using the toy sweatshops as an example, Mattel only sought to better improve the conditions within its subcontracted factories because the brand and image of Mattel itself was under the threat of a public-relations disaster and a potential boycott of its products which, obviously, would in turn correlate to lost profit. The very essence of profit itself is far beyond monetary value. Profit could simply mean what benefits a business receives out of an investment – in this case the profit is an improved public opinion. A corporation seeks to improve itself under the “cloak” of social responsibility because it sees a potential benefit in the long run. Put simply, the corporation really does adhere to its fundamental purpose of maximizing the profits for its stakeholders. Businesses are really very much like humans because, when you help someone, aren’t you really just helping yourself?