[mcv]

Valid according to the type of capitalist economy the rich, powerful and money hungry want: one where everything revolves around shareholder value, rather than societal value. In that economy, it doesn't matter how destructive your business model is, as long as the shareholders get value out of it.

Friedman's idea that corporations that maximising shareholder value has clearly been the single most destructive ideal that has plagued this planet for the past half century, but to too many people in power it is still the rule.

It's also the reason why we still keep burning coal and oil, despite knowing that we're destroying our planet that way.

[nerdponx]

People were doing this long before Friedman was even born. People were doing it before capitalism as we know it even existed. Friedman's idea is just retroactive justification for one of the fundamental evils in human nature.