But there are many forms CSR can take. Some of it can be practices towards the environment, or labor, or communities, for example. The Maxwell House example cited above takes yet another approach: the cash back approach. That much, IMO, clearly is outsourcing personal responsibility. Instead of you donating to a cause of your choice, Maxwell House is inserting itself as a middleman and taking credit for it.

Perhaps the greatest irony being that here you have one of the worst offenders in the global coffee crisis that lead to the creation of Fair Trade. But instead of addressing those core issues, Kraft is promoting a charitable giveaway through a TV commercial as a ruse or distraction. So when Maxwell House decides to “Brew Some Good,” apparently that “good” somehow includes exploitive labor practices of their suppliers and unsustainable agriculture.

I haven’t exactly jumped fully on the fair trade bandwagon, but doesn’t that imply that the CSR proponents have succeeded? CSR came around in response to perceived injustices committed by large corporations. Now those corporations are changing their habits. That’s not ‘outsourcing personal responsibility,’ because the only responsibility most fair-trade consumers shoulder is deciding from whom to buy. It’s a victory.

Now there’s a whole other discussion to be had about the economics of fair trade and CSR. But you are coming at this from the wrong perspective IMO.