The Moral Obligations of Businesses

I was recently involved in a conversation about hegemony and its effects on the international marketplace, particularly in light of life-saving vaccines like the coronavirus vaccines of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. In this discussion, the other person kept referring to the moral obligations of companies and how the drive for profits was outweighing the moral obligation to save lives. I finally countered — as an good business lawyer would do — and said that companies do not have moral obligations because companies are legal fictions (the exist ONLY because we say they exist) and ficticious things do not have morals.

Or do they?

In a recent story from WBUR (Boston University radio), it was noted that Jackson Hole Mountain Resort stores no longer sold Patagonia clothing. Apparently, one of the owners hosted a fundraiser for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green and that did not sit well with the CEO of Patagonia. So he pulled their product from the stores. His decision was not based on politics, he claimed, but on “standing up to misinformation and hate speech.” He went on to say that ”if you are a business and your sole reason for existing is making money and offering product to as big a slice of humanity as possible, I suppose that does make sense. That's not our reason for being.”

So does a company, who duties run directly to the shareholder, also have obligations to their values? Even if it costs them money?

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