According to Mr. Perkins:
"In 1976 Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics and he said the only responsibility of business is to maximise short term profits regardless of the social environmental costs...."
"That suddenly gave CEO's the license, some would say the mandate to do whatever it takes to maximise profits including corrupting politicians..."
"It gave CEO's the mandate, maybe the license to destroy the environment...and to pay their workers as little as possible. No health care. No retirement. Lay them off. So on and so forth..."
"It wasn't just Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman was the tipping point. A guy named von Hayek who won the Nobel Prize a few years earlier in '74 and he also advocated these kinds of..."
Here’s what Dr. Friedman actually said in 1970:
"In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate executive is an employee of the owners of the business. He has direct responsibility to his employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom."
Download Friedman's article on Social Responsibility here (pdf)...
That's hardly suggesting what Mr. Perkin’s says.
What he said about Iceland and the Blacklists and Crony Capitalism I whole heartedly agree with.
I sent a message to his website asking if he can cite references for his comments about Messrs Friedman and Hayek, but no word back yet.
