PROBLEM 2–1 Consider the following excerpt from the Financial Analysts Journal:

Strictly speaking, the objectives of financial reporting are the objectives of society and not of accountants and auditors, as such. Similarly, society has objective law and medicine—namely, justice and health for the people—which are not necessarily the objectives of lawyers and doctors, as such, in the conduct of their respective “business.”

In a variety of ways, society exerts pressure on a profession to act more nearly as if it actively shared the objectives of society. Society’s pressure is to be measured by the degree of accommodation on the part of the profession under pressure, and by the degree of counterpressure applied by the profession. For example, doctors accommodate society by getting better educations than otherwise and reducing incompetence in their ranks. They apply counterpressure and gain protection by forming medical associations.

Required:

a. Describe ways in which society has brought pressure on accountants to better serve its needs.

b. Describe how the accounting profession has responded to these pressures. Could the profession have better responded?