Can I just add a little rant I had on this the other day? I had to compact this into an SMS so it lacks the full elaboration:
"What is the point of corporate social responsibility? The costs are passed onto the consumer. Why bundle charity with Maccas? What do they know about charity?"
-- sent while eating at Maccas.
Things on my mind:
* What about specialisation and division of labour: McDonalds is great at making junk food. Are they necessarily good at do-gooding around the world? Perhaps we should leave this separate service to other firms.
* If people really want to be effectively charitable, they should donate to the specialists, not to firms who are merely trying to improve their rep.
Of course, people voluntarily purchase from Maccas. They don't seem too fazed by the higher prices. There are a few things (policies and simple truths) that probably exacerbate this:
* Intellectual property means no-one can imitate Maccas, and run a cheaper non-charitable version of Maccas.
* People don't actually know how effective different charities are. They only like how good it feels to donate, so it's a bit like those words Milton Friedman said about spending money. Spending your own money on someone else means you care about how much you spend, but not so much on what you get them. Hence, consumers don't really have an incentive to choose a specialised charity, over Maccas.
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