Passage 3
A famous cliche maintainsthat"the business of business is business". The business of businessis not government, charity or social welfare.nor, the cliche implies, is itmorality.But what does "the business of business"is business mean? Toget some perspective on the question, we must look beyond our own society. Whatwe find is this? what is considerde to be business and its business varies fromsociety to society. In Japan, the business of large corporations is not only toproduce goods but to care for the firm's employees—in effect, to guaranteethem lifetime employment Paternalism is thus part of the business of businessin Japan, in a way that it is not in the United States. In the former SovietUnion, private ownership of the means of production, that is, of companies andfactories, was prohibited by law. Nevertheless, there were in Russia factories,offices, stores, and goods. But business there was state affair, not a privateaffair. What constitutes business varies from society to society. The questionof what business per se is, and what its proper concern is, is a socialquestion, one that must be answered in social context.
In the United States, themandate to business was initially rather simple. People wanted goods to be asplentiful, as good, and as cheap as possible. Those interested in producingthem were given relatively free rein under competitive conditions. Somebusinesses succeeded and grew: others failed. As problems developed,regulations were introduced by law. These laws regulated working conditions,protected children, prevented monopolistic practices, and preserved theenvironment. The regulations frequently represented the moral concerns of theAmerican people. The business of business was, and is, decided by the people ofeach society. What practices are or are not to be tolerated are not eternalgivens, nor are the determinations of what is or is not acceptable toa society.To some extent, the mandate to business also sets the limits to its properactivity, and to what is not socially tolerable. The limits are not set bybusiness or by those who run business, even though some of them act as if theywere.The limits imposed on business and the demands made upon business bysociety are frequently moral ones. A business may ignore the moral demands ofan individual, but it can hardly ignore the moral demands of a whole society,because it is both part of that society and dependent on it, even though itserves society.
There is increasing evidencethat the mandate to business in the United States is changing, and thatbusinesses are increasingly expected to weigh more than financial factors intheir actions. What the business of business is, in fact, is itself a moraldecision, and one that is socially made and implemented. Insofar as business isa part of society, it rightfully has voice in arriving at the socialdeterminatic of what its business is.
Which of the following can be the most proper title of the passage?
A、The Business of Business
B、Paternalism in Japan
C、The Limits Imposed on American Business
D、Business and Society
【正确答案】：A
【名师解析】:选项A "The Business of Business" 是最合适的标题，因为它涵盖了全文的中心议题，即商业的本质及其在不同社会中所承担的角色。文章首先提出了一个常见的观点，即商业的本质是商业本身，而不是政府、慈善或社会福利，更不是道德。然后，通过比较日本和前苏联的商业实践，展示了商业的定义和实践是如何因社会而异的。接着，文章转向美国，讨论了商业的使命是如何随着社会需求和道德关切而演变的，以及商业如何受到社会期望和道德要求的限制。最后，文章指出商业的使命正在变化，商业不仅要考虑财务因素，还要考虑其他因素，这本身就是一个社会决定的道德决策。因此，选项A不仅捕捉了文章的主题，而且也反映了文章探讨的商业与社会关系的复杂性。