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These companies become only more dangerous if they think of themselves as invested with some societal mission

A business would only care about its “societal impact” if it is trying to do something for and to “society,” that is, in favour of some individuals and against others in the wider society. Milton Friedman correctly argued that no private business has or should have such a mandate. Realistically and morally, a business should care only for its owners, which it does by competing, trying to maximize its profits, and serving consumers.

Some rare businesses have, for a certain period of time, a significant impact on the economy and society. They are the bearers of great innovations, exemplified by such disruptive tech giants as Google, Amazon and Facebook. These companies become only more dangerous if they think of themselves as invested with some “societal” mission.

Another reason why a business would care about its “societal impact” is if it wants to please political cronies. Indeed, “societal” is preferred to “social” precisely to convey the idea that businesses must, over and above (and sometimes against) basic honesty, obey what politicians and government bureaucrats decide in cahoots with busybody mobs guided by the intelligentsia. Societal businesses were bound to discriminate against black people in South Africa and to collaborate with the Nazi government, instead of serving any profitable clientele on the market.

Nobody knows what societal impact means except intelligentsia language engineers

But isn’t “societal” just a word? The late Nobel prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek criticized “our poisoned language,” by which he meant the faddish buzzwords and related theories with which the intelligentsia justifies social engineering. Like “sustainable” and other magical words, “societal” is a mantra hiding the political agenda that some individuals want to impose on other individuals. If “social justice” has turned into a killer, wait to see what “societal justice” can do.

Nobody knows what “societal impact” means except the intelligentsia’s language engineers who manipulate words for political purposes, using them as Trojan horses to attack economic freedom. If businesses end up submitting to a mandate of “societal impact,” it wouldn’t be first time they’ve been intellectually eaten alive.

Pierre Lemieux is an economist affiliated with the Department of Management Sciences of the Université du Québec en Outaouais.PL@pierrelemieux.com