at is the problem? According to Milton Friedman the social responsibility of business is to make a profit and nothing more. All you need to do is follow the rules of the game. Dobson says the problem is the lack of trust that exists in the financial world these days. Managers are no longer interested in any issues other than that of personal gain. Laws are broken and people are negatively effected by decisions that are made to maximize and only to maximize wealth. And according to Dobson this problem is said to be contractual. In the regards to contracts (agreements between two or more parties) there are two main types that exist. The first being explicit contracts which are defined as "those that appear in writing and lend themselves to legal enforcement (albeit at a cost)." (Dobson,pp.14) The other form is implicit contracts which are defined as contracts that "do not readily lend themselves to legal enforcement; they are, as Bradford Cornell and Alan Shapiro put it, too nebulous and state contingent to reduce to writing at a reasonable cost'." (Dobson,pp. 14) With explicit contracts being enforceable (for the most part) it is implicit contracts that become our main concern. These usually fall in the forms of commitments, handshakes, or promises. Basically, implicit contracts only work if the parties involved are responsible, honest, and ethically sound. Consequently, in the existing financial world with the goal of materialism at any cost, the individuals do not have these characteristics that are required for implicit contracts to work. Furthermore, as J.B. King states "As a result of our economy's increasing complexity, it is becoming more difficult and expensive to spell out and enforce mutual responsibilities through detailed contracts and administrative hierarchies...Conditions of trust are therefore becoming increasingly crucial to competing-and cooperating-in today's business environment." (Dobson,pp. 14) To increas...
