Brown-nosing the rich

Abstract

On the death of Milton Friedman in November 2006, then Chancellor Gordon Brown hailed him as ‘one of the great economic theorists of the 20th century’ (BBC, 2006). Yet no matter how far Brown sought to identify Friedman as an intellectual fellow traveller, their analysis of the structure of capitalism differed in one significant respect: Friedman (1970) famously asserted that ‘the only responsibility of business is to increase its profits’, arguing that businesses could not be socially responsible even if they tried; Brown's project to reconstruct regulatory policy in the UK was based upon the implicit assumption that government should trust business to act responsibly. As he oversaw a bailout of the banks triggered by systematic irresponsibility, Brown issued a plea for corporate social responsibility in the financial sector:

Our government is pro business; I believe in markets, entrepreneurship and there are many areas of the economy that need the spur of more competition. But the events of the past months bear witness, more than anything in my lifetime, to one simple truth: markets need morals.

(Brown, 2008)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steve Tombs

Steve Tombs is Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University

David Whyte

Dr David Whyte is Reader in Sociology at University of Liverpool