The classical view of social responsibility holds that spending time, money, labor, or energy to improve society's welfare would ________

A) deprive stockholders of resources that could be used to generate profits
B) not have any positive or negative impact on stockholders
C) help maximize profits for stockholders
D) show stockholders that the company knows best

Answer: A
Explanation: The classical view of social responsibility holds that any use of resources that does not explicitly seek to increase profits is wasteful and deprives stockholders of the income that would otherwise be theirs. This means that spending on social welfare has a negative impact on profits, thus ruling out the choices regarding not having any impact on stockholders and maximizing profits for stockholders as correct responses. The idea that the company knows better than stockholders is not part of the classical view of social responsibility.