When I began reading our COMM101’s assigned reading of “The Social Responsibiliy of Business is to Increase Profits” by Milton Friedman, I had barely any idea of business ethics. As described by Friedman, I was one of those people who thought that businesses should practice for the greater good of society. But as I continued to read on, I realized I was being completely proven wrong. His argument was solid, and produced points about ethics that I had never thought of before.

I had never even fathomed taking money from work and using it for society’s needs. Everything he proposed, such as imposing taxes at work, were ideas that had never even crossed my mind.

I also was disappointed to hear that despite the company, Chiquita’s efforts to remain ethical and socially responsible, nothing came out of their hard work. Are ethics worth it? Or must they only be applied in the right situation to deserve recognition? These are questions that concern me. In an economic point of view, the opportunity cost of pursuing ethics are maybe too high sometimes.