How the Profit Motive Benefits Society

The profit motive benefits society because it aligns self-interest with value creation. When individuals or businesses seek profit, they must produce something others are willing to pay for - whether it’s a product, a service, or a life-changing innovation - like the smartphone or AI.

It’s why you have clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a smartphone in your pocket - instead of waiting in a breadline with a ration book. In a profit-driven system, people get rich by solving other people’s problems. The better they solve them, the richer they get.

When the possibility of financial gain exists, it encourages investment and risk-taking. That’s how society gets medical breakthroughs, streaming services, cleaner energy, faster internet, etc. Profit-seeking behavior ensures businesses listen to consumer demand and allocate resources to where they’re most valued - resulting in goods and services people actually want. Contrast this with a non-profit socialist system where you only get what politicians and bureaucrats want you to have.

The pursuit of profit also leads to job creation and economic growth. As businesses expand, they hire more workers, pay higher wages, and reinvest in their communities. This virtuous cycle lifts living standards and strengthens the economy.

Finally, the desire to earn more pushes firms to innovate and become more efficient. They cut waste, improve production methods, and find new ways to deliver better products at lower prices. In the end, consumers benefit from more choice, better quality, and affordable goods. And since we are all consumers, that means it benefits virtually everyone.

 

[Isidore]

How does the profit motive harm society?

 

[Mycroft]

How does the profit motive harm society?

It makes bleeding hearts bleed a little bit more.

 

[soylentgreen]

Profit is also why we pay far more for a product than we should be. Take the recent increase in prices for beef. A simple act of create a demand for beef then reduce the supply to the point where suppliers can increase the asking price due to a shortage that was created by the supplier.

 

[dmpi]

Profit is also why we pay far more for a product than we should be. Take the recent increase in prices for beef. A simple act of create a demand for beef then reduce the supply to the point where suppliers can increase the asking price due to a shortage that was created by the supplier.

Shortages are created by excessive demand. Nobody has a God-given right to free or low-cost anything. You have to entice a supplier to produce more.

 

[soylentgreen]

Shortages are created by excessive demand. Nobody has a God-given right to free or low-cost anything. You have to entice a supplier to produce more.

Shortages are also manipulated by suppliers to increase profits. No supplier has the right to manipulate the market for their own profit either.

 

[aociswundumho]

Shortages are also manipulated by suppliers to increase profits.

If you artificially restrict supply and raise prices, customers will just switch brands or buy substitutes. Restricting supply to increase prices also incentivizes new competitors to jump in and steal market share. The only time restricting supply to raise prices make sense is with things like certain luxury goods.

 

[reflechissez]

If you artificially restrict supply and raise prices, customers will just switch brands or buy substitutes. Restricting supply to increase prices also incentivizes new competitors to jump in and steal market share. The only time restricting supply to raise prices make sense is with things like certain luxury goods.

It doesn't sound like you've ever taken an econ course.

 

[Scatty Kitty]

The profit motive benefits society because it aligns self-interest with value creation. When individuals or businesses seek profit, they must produce something others are willing to pay for - whether it’s a product, a service, or a life-changing innovation - like the smartphone or AI.

It’s why you have clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a smartphone in your pocket - instead of waiting in a breadline with a ration book. In a profit-driven system, people get rich by solving other people’s problems. The better they solve them, the richer they get.

When the possibility of financial gain exists, it encourages investment and risk-taking. That’s how society gets medical breakthroughs, streaming services, cleaner energy, faster internet, etc. Profit-seeking behavior ensures businesses listen to consumer demand and allocate resources to where they’re most valued - resulting in goods and services people actually want. Contrast this with a non-profit socialist system where you only get what politicians and bureaucrats want you to have.

The pursuit of profit also leads to job creation and economic growth. As businesses expand, they hire more workers, pay higher wages, and reinvest in their communities. This virtuous cycle lifts living standards and strengthens the economy.

Finally, the desire to earn more pushes firms to innovate and become more efficient. They cut waste, improve production methods, and find new ways to deliver better products at lower prices. In the end, consumers benefit from more choice, better quality, and affordable goods. And since we are all consumers, that means it benefits virtually everyone.

I fell like this post just doesn't understand what the political economy is or how it works.

 

[Cosmo]

Profit is also why we pay far more for a product than we should be.

Who defines this "should be?" You?

Take the recent increase in prices for beef. A simple act of create a demand for beef then reduce the supply to the point where suppliers can increase the asking price due to a shortage that was created by the supplier.

 

[iguanaman]

Profit is also why we pay far more for a product than we should be. Take the recent increase in prices for beef. A simple act of create a demand for beef then reduce the supply to the point where suppliers can increase the asking price due to a shortage that was created by the supplier.

What you are saying is that the profit motive also motivates fraud and grift. That is why capitalism must be regulated in order to function correctly. Profits without rules quickly revert to robbery.

 

[spud_meister]

Just look how the profit motive drove opium merchants to improve China.

 

[BirdinHand]

That’s how society gets medical breakthroughs, streaming services, cleaner energy, faster internet, etc.

Actually, many of the history changing drugs we currently enjoy came into being because of public funding.

Penicillin’s ability to be mass distributed? US and UK military

Streptomycin? Government funding
Polio vaccine? Government funding

There is an extensive list - and it also includes things like cancer and AIDS/HIV drugs and treatments as well as medical devices and technologies.

The Internet? Government funding.
Space travel? Government funding
The infrastructure in this country that led to wide spread industrialization? Government funding



Not private investment and profits.

Your entire premise is flawed.

 

[soylentgreen]

If you artificially restrict supply and raise prices, customers will just switch brands or buy substitutes. Restricting supply to increase prices also incentivizes new competitors to jump in and steal market share. The only time restricting supply to raise prices make sense is with things like certain luxury goods.

That only works when you have small business competing with each other. But we do not just have small business now, we have corporations that control large portions of the market. In america you have places like walmart that control product availability for whole cities and many small towns. Or as in the case of beef where suppliers work together to control supply.

You are relying on an old fashion idea of capitalism that is slowly disappearing in corporate america.

 

[soylentgreen]

Who defines this "should be?" You?

An understanding of what goes into the production and distribution of a product. As apposed to a supplier artificially controlling production and distribution to create profit.

 

[CaughtInThe]

The profit motive benefits society because it aligns self-interest with value creation. When individuals or businesses seek profit, they must produce something others are willing to pay for - whether it’s a product, a service, or a life-changing innovation - like the smartphone or AI.

It’s why you have clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a smartphone in your pocket - instead of waiting in a breadline with a ration book. In a profit-driven system, people get rich by solving other people’s problems. The better they solve them, the richer they get.

When the possibility of financial gain exists, it encourages investment and risk-taking. That’s how society gets medical breakthroughs, streaming services, cleaner energy, faster internet, etc. Profit-seeking behavior ensures businesses listen to consumer demand and allocate resources to where they’re most valued - resulting in goods and services people actually want. Contrast this with a non-profit socialist system where you only get what politicians and bureaucrats want you to have.

The pursuit of profit also leads to job creation and economic growth. As businesses expand, they hire more workers, pay higher wages, and reinvest in their communities. This virtuous cycle lifts living standards and strengthens the economy.

Finally, the desire to earn more pushes firms to innovate and become more efficient. They cut waste, improve production methods, and find new ways to deliver better products at lower prices. In the end, consumers benefit from more choice, better quality, and affordable goods. And since we are all consumers, that means it benefits virtually everyone.

Conversely...



Big Tobacco’s Real Message: Profit Is More Important Than Health

Big Tobacco’s Real Message: Profit Is More Important Than Health - American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation | no-smoke.org

Is Big Tobacco running these ads in your area? Here is a recent paid article (an “advertorial”) from a tobacco company – an example of how the industry is seeking to create influence and stoke interference.

no-smoke.org

 

[soylentgreen]

What you are saying is that the profit motive also motivates fraud and grift. That is why capitalism must be regulated in order to function correctly. Profits without rules quickly revert to robbery.

Profit as a motivation has been around since the first caveman swapped a leg of meat for a few fish. Capitalism did not invent profit. It only gave a theory as to how profit works given certain conditions. This thread is just another silly attempt from aociswundumbo to distract from the fact that modern business corporates profit from manipulating the market rather than simply following a supply and demand theory of capitalism. He is pretending that some here ( the evil socialists he loves to blame things on ) must hate profit itself.

 

[Cosmo]

An understanding of what goes into the production and distribution of a product.

There's more to it than that.

As apposed to a supplier artificially controlling production and distribution to create profit.

What's "artificially?" Charging more for a house than the price of the lumber it's made of?

 

[soylentgreen]

There's more to it than that.

What's "artificially?" Charging more for a house than the price of the lumber it's made of?

True, there is also supply and demand to consider.

No, that would be making a profit from the work of using that lumber to build a house.

Here's a good example of how to profit from nothing..

https://theferret.scot/what-is-the-eus-bendy-bananas-law/

The law which was originally associated with “bendy bananas” was passed in 1994.

Commission Regulation 2257/94 identifies certain restrictions for fruits that producers have to conform to in order to sell their produce within the EU. The regulation states that bananas must be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature”.

Can you give me one good reason as to what difference a bend in a banana makes except that by reducing the amount of bananas for sale the suppliers can demand a higher price for the banana.

 

[Cosmo]

True, there is also supply and demand to consider.

No, that would be making a profit from the work of using that lumber to build a house.

Right. That's generally how it is done now in America, is it not?

Here's a good example of how to profit from nothing..

https://theferret.scot/what-is-the-eus-bendy-bananas-law/


Can you give me one good reason as to what difference a bend in a banana makes except that by reducing the amount of bananas for sale the suppliers can demand a higher price for the banana.

What does this have to do with a supplier artificially creating a profit? That's the government intervening.

 

[soylentgreen]

Right. That's generally how it is done now in America, is it not?

What does this have to do with a supplier artificially creating a profit? That's the government intervening.

Not as much. As much of america is now in the hands of corporates rather than small business. Not completely but in many cases, mostly. Walmart has driven the mom and pop stores out Mcdonalds has overtaken small restaraunts. Corporate farming has bought out the independent single farmer. And corporations are not subject to the rules of capitalism. They play by the rules of laissez faire capitalism. Meaning that they control supply and manipulate demand rather than as capitalism would have it the consumer should control demand and thereby supply.

True, the government is acting on behalf and only for the benefit of the supplier. Because as I said, can you think of reason to ban a banana because off the bend. Other than to create a profit for the supplier. Not the farmer who has to throw away a perfectly edible banana. Nor the consumer who would otherwise still get an edible banana despite the bend.

 

[Cosmo]

Not as much. As much of america is now in the hands of corporates rather than small business. Not completely but in many cases, mostly. Walmart has driven the mom and pop stores out Mcdonalds has overtaken small restaraunts. Corporate farming has bought out the independent single farmer. And corporations are not subject to the rules of capitalism.

Yes, they are. You brought up government, which isn't, to make some sort of point about corporations. Your argument makes no sense.

They play by the rules of laissez faire capitalism. Meaning that they control supply and manipulate demand rather than as capitalism would have it the consumer should control demand and thereby supply.

True, the government is acting on behalf and only for the benefit of the supplier. Because as I said, can you think of reason to ban a banana because off the bend. Other than to create a profit for the supplier. Not the farmer who has to throw away a perfectly edible banana. Nor the consumer who would otherwise still get an edible banana despite the bend.

 

[soylentgreen]

Yes, they are. You brought up government, which isn't, to make some sort of point about corporations. Your argument makes no sense.

Corporations have the power and money to buy the cooperation of government. There is no advantage to a bendy banana ruling except to give suppliers a better profit at the expense of growers and consumers.

 

[aociswundumho]

Corporations have the power and money to buy the cooperation of government.

So do you support drastically limiting government power, in order to reduce the power of corporations? Or are you going to wait until the legislature is comprised entirely of honest politicians who can't be bought?

The big corporations you despise would prefer you to choose the second option.

 

[Cosmo]

Corporations have the power and money to buy the cooperation of government. There is no advantage to a bendy banana ruling except to give suppliers a better profit at the expense of growers and consumers.

You still have not demonstrated any artificiality inherent here. And anyone (not just corporations) with money and power can buy stuff from corrupt politicians, but that's not a problem with capitalism, but with big government.