Read the following excerpt from Marianne M. Jennings,

“The Social Responsibility of Business Is Not Social Responsibility: Assume That There Are No Angels and Allow the Free Market’s Touch of Heaven,” 16 Berkeley Business Law Journal 2 (2019), pp. 325–462.

Scrutiny is the stuff of common sense. Oh, the hype in the field of alt-fuel vehicles. Why, the investor enthusiasm, particularly by large corporations, is positively, well, electric.

Electric and then shocking.

A company that pursues a subsidized product area is not refined by the buffetings of the free market nor is it pushed to excellence. A business that is forgiven for missteps in the form of CSR investment funds despite shortcomings or permitted to continue operating with subsidies is deprived of the opportunity to reach excellence and success. As in the cases of Solyndra, Solar Tech, and SolarCity, all the CSR rankings and subsidies could not keep them from bankruptcy and/or acquisition. If solar power makes economic sense, the market will beat a path to the door of any companies pioneering this technology. However, all the subsidies, imprimaturs, screens, and social media chatter that the CSR movement can muster have not been able to keep these Humpty Dumptys from falling to failure.

Is the CSR/ESG imprimatur a cover for companies that may not be forthright with their R&D and products? Is it possible that the seal of social responsibility shields hucksters? P-6523