Social Impacts of Social Responsibility
One of the main focuses of any socially responsible business is in social aid. Through philanthropic donations and volunteer time, socially responsible businesses help the society around them.
Poverty is one of the biggest problems facing America today; rougly 15% of the population is living in poverty.
Businesses have the power to help, and should. Companies can help by donating to the poor in the community or to non-profits that help society. People have caught on -total giving to charitable organizations was $316.23 billion in 2012 (about 2% of GDP), an increase of 3.5% from 2011. Businesses can also help by staying in business and employing as many people as possible. A business inherently positively impacts society by employing people and letting them earn the money they need to feed their families. Businesses abuse this power and negatively impact society by abusing their workers and treating them unfairly. A perfect example is what has happened to two of the largest companies in the United States: Costco and Walmart. According to Rick Ungar, a senior political contributor to Forbes.com, Costco "pays nearly all of its employees a decent living (well in excess of the minimum wage) while Wal-Mart continues to pay its workers as if their employees don’t actually need to eat more than once a week." As a result, Costco experienced an 8% growth in year-to-year sales, whereas Walmart increased by only 1.2%. |