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Doesn't necessarily work that way (shareholders can sell their shares still)...

... but it's how it's marketed to people so they believe it and follow Friedman's doctrine like gospel.



Who does this marketing?


Everyone repeating the mantra about how caring for shareholder profits is the fiduciary duty of the corporation leadership, and how it's "a law".

At this point it's a self-propagating meme. I frequently encounter people, learned people, who act like it is a law or moral principle (in fact, corporations aren't even required to be for profit even when operating commercially, they are just an organizational structure). When questioned, nobody can cleanly point where they learnt it, but actual check shows that Friedman Doctrine[1] was never written into law.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine


Ah - I see. I don't think that's marketing; just a common misconception. But yes, I've seen that too. No idea if it's true or not. Presumably it changes depending on the country.


It's pretty much untrue everywhere.

That said, the misconception can be tracked down to one person in 1980... that sounds more like an idea that got marketed - whether by Friedman teaching in university in certain way, or his students continuing that, or people taking the idea from his paper and teaching that... or newspapers passing it further...

At some point you start to wonder cui bono?




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