MGMT 570 ISSUE PAPER
ARE PROFITS THE ONLY BUSINESS OF BUSINESS?
CONSUMER NOTIFICATION AND PRODUCT RECALL
BY
KOLAWOLE OLAYINKA
03/30/2013

ARE PROFITS THE ONLY BUSINESS OF BUSINESS?
Supply and demand is at the root of everything, where exchange of goods and services is involved between producers and consumers for mutual benefits. These mutual benefits involve an exchange that provides value to the consumer and profits to the producer. It is not at all farfetched to think of these as basically human characteristics. At the beginning of a spectrum is the producer and at the end of the same, is the consumer. They interact with each other and with the governmental law regulating their transactions.
In this economic system, what will be produced is determined by what will yield the greatest profit. From the readings, Milton Friedman and Robert Almeder recognize the merits of a profit-driven economic system. They do not quarrel over the importance of profits. But they do quarrel over whether or not business firms have obligations beyond making profits.
A consumer may be a pet owner who feeds and provides care for a beloved animal, a doting grandparent who buys toys and clothes for the grandkids, an individual who wears contact lenses or hearing aids, a patient who buys prescription medications, or vehicle owner. Should a consumer have certain expectations from the suppliers and producers of the products that he buys?
Can we trust corporations that they will not produce what will jeopardize the human life? Was Ford to be blame in the pinto case? Must we wait for the characters like “Erin Brokovich” to fight on behalf of the helpless consumers? Who is to be blamed for the McDonald’s hot coffee case-the producer, the consumer or the regulators?
Almost thirty years has passed since the Pinto accidents and what followed from it. We still don’t know how “safe” a