'Due to fulfilling social responsibility, cost of business increased and businessmen charged higher prices from the consumers instead of bearing it themselves'.

Which of the following arguments against social responsibility is highlighted in the above lines?

Burden on consumers

The correct answer is option 2- Burden on consumers.

Burden on consumers: It is argued that social responsibilities like pollution control and environmental protection are very costly and often require huge financial investments. In such circumstances, businessmen are likely to simply shift this burden of social responsibility by charging higher prices from the consumers instead of bearing it themselves. Therefore, it is unfair to tax the consumers in the name of social responsibility.

OTHER OPTIONS-

• Lack of social skills: All social problems cannot be solved the way business problems are solved. In fact, businessmen do not have the necessary understanding and training to solve social problems. Therefore, according to this argument, social problems should be solved by other specialised agencies.

• Lack of broad public support: Here the argument is that the public in general does not like business involvement or interference in social programmes. Therefore, business cannot operate successfully because of lack of public confidence and cooperation in solving social problems.

• Violation of profit maximisation objective: According to this argument, business exists only for profit maximisation. Therefore, any talk of social responsibility is against this objective. In fact, business can best fulfill its social responsibility if it maximises profits through increased efficiency and reduced costs.