Business owes nothing to society beyond making profit. Government owes society the close regulation and hefty taxation of business to ensure that the society which supports all of us, business included, continues to function without violent disturbance, like revolution.

A little from column A and a little from Column B. No, not really, some business are set up purely for profit, I don't have any problem with that as long as they don't pretend otherwise, I am careful where I do business and what I buy so take these things into account. Other businesses have social objectives (or environmental) as well and I applaud this and do favor them accordingly.

" America, love it or leave it"! That was the refrain from the 60's to answer political protesters. This country is our home, we all live here. All the people who live here owe back to our home. If you live here and enjoy the benefits and opportunity our home gives you then you have a debt of responsibility to our home. Anyone who thinks they do not owe back to our home needs to get out! Go find some other place where they appreciate people like you.

While they might not owe society anything, it benefits them to do so, if we need to learn a skill to do their jobs, they should pay for education, and there are other things that they should support, in true capitalism, capital is supposed to pay the taxes.

A good company gives back when they can. They treat their employees well.

To build and improve a society it requires an effort of people working together. The decline of virtually every society in all of history is almost always marked by the rise of a culture of greed, where every person only looks out for themselves and their own interests.

Business prospers when society prospers. When societies fail, businesses fold.

Work is always motivated by profit (making money). In this respect, a business is no different from an individual. We're all trying to make a profit. A business, like an individual, must co-exist within a community. The problem arises when a business gets so big that it is run by bean counters that loose the awareness of the need to exist within a community. The word 'responsibility' is just a fancy word for 'should', which is a superstition. I like to deal with reality rather than superstitions. Thinking in terms of others responsibilities never solves any problems, just creates more problems.

The two options here are basically what happens and what should happen. But now many business house have very good CSR initiatives. That's encouraging.

Too few business seem to get the idea that the society they work within is a big part of their infrastructure. When the society fails so will they.

This idea will, again, become manifest when the stock market bubble bursts which it has soooo many times before!

Anyone or any company that claims that its success is to due its hard work alone is a liar. The germs of thir ideas they got from others, and they all benefit from a vast array of social services and to the labor and loyalty of their employees.

I couldn't vote, but I will comment. When I was first in a business that required employees, I came to a realization that stayed with me ever since. I may have a great concept and I may have the money, but without my people my cleverness and wealth are a waste. I also found that paying and treating them well improved my chances of bringing my ideas to fruition.

To that extent, yes, corporations have a responsibility to raise up society with some of their profit by investing it back into the society that makes it possible for them to exist. I don't know how that would be implemented or the amounts that would be reasonable, but there is indeed a responsibility to reward the society that supports it. It is simply that without a society with adequate means, there is not business and there is no profit to be had.

They do not profit if we don't. That is the profit.

In order to create a business or company in the past, you were obligated to, make a profit, create a good product for the benefit of society, pay the workers a decent wage. I believe it was every 7 years a company was liquefied, paid any remaining bills and or cost. At that point start again. If the product did not benefit society or produce a profit, it was taken liquefied and ended. I recall Thom Hartmann speaking of these time often.

All businesses have a responsibility to be accountable for the actions that affect the public good.