Friedman may have written them a nice excuse, but capitalists have always behaved this way. Look at the behavior of the robber barons around the turn of the 20th century for example.
The question is not one of motivation, but what allowed them to get away with it? So I would like to combine your comment with the root from another thread: "Business managed to exploit a number of crises to break the power of labor unions. The gold standard had nothing to do with it: sticking with gold would not force management to share productivity gains with labor."
Among the 'number of crises' being that the boom from rebuilding after WWII was basically over, which has also been mentioned in other comments.
The question is not one of motivation, but what allowed them to get away with it? So I would like to combine your comment with the root from another thread: "Business managed to exploit a number of crises to break the power of labor unions. The gold standard had nothing to do with it: sticking with gold would not force management to share productivity gains with labor."
Among the 'number of crises' being that the boom from rebuilding after WWII was basically over, which has also been mentioned in other comments.