ESG is corporate socialism
A report by Bruce Pardy for the Fraser Institute, January 2023
ESG, the “Environmental, Social, and Governance” model of business administration - also referred to as the “green Frankenstein of Wall Street” - used to be called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and continues its emphasis on the role of business to do “good” and do “right”. Driven by external requirements that, in theory, promote accountability from within that is measurable from without, ESG has rocketed from “a half-baked idea among low-level UN staffers” to the baked-in focus shift of business culture, mindset and mission.
With its inconsistent ranking indicators, reduced corporate decision-making accountability, increased conflict of interest, expanded political control of capital, and enforced uniformity on the voluntary, diverse and creative nature of business, ESG is perhaps less a recipe for prosperity and more a channel to something else.
In his new paper, “ESG is Corporate Socialism,” Bruce Pardy, the executive director of Rights Probe, explores the “Trojan horse” that is ESG and its threat to capitalism and free society with the end of apolitical commerce that ESG proposes.
Download the paper here in PDF format or view in full at the publisher’s website.
