While no one knows how many shareholder dollars are being spent each year on CSR, I suspect the bottom line would impress even the Congressional Budget Office. Think of CSR as the redistribution of prosperity away from those who have invested their savings in the stock market and toward those people or things that the unelected non-government organizations of the world consider worthy.
CSR has become a rallying cry for Members of Congress who have advanced their careers by attacking capitalism and successful corporations. For those on Capitol Hill who think it is about time corporations got a dose of social responsibility, think again. The CSR movement is not only about redistributing the wealth, but also about redistributing political power—away from legislators and regulators and toward non-government organizations that are unaccountable to the public and rarely accountable to government. You may think it is cute that corporate executives are frolicking with activist groups, but I suspect you will think differently when those same groups determine that you are irrelevant.