THRUST FOR FREEDOM - No. 8

What is PROFIT?

PROFIT is the word which has had the largest number of invectives hurled at it in the last century. The word profit has become so symbolic of the evils inherent in our social structure that, in the minds of many people, it is synonymous with greed, lust, ruthlessness, and every other aggressive attribute of human behavior. The public attitude toward PROFIT is nowhere more manifest than in the world of business wherein the majority of businessmen (who are in business to earn a PROFIT) feel impelled to apologize for their PROFIT motive by concealing their quest for PROFIT in flowery and hypocritical language about “public service.”

Public service is not an end - it is a means. It is only by serving the public that PROFITS are earned. But the goal of any rational businessman is to make a PROFIT.

What is a PROFIT? In the limited world of secondary property*⁽²⁾ transactions, PROFIT is the increase of property (as measured by a financial yardstick). However, there are many other forms of PROFIT. It is PROFITABLE to read a good book. It is PROFITABLE to enjoy one’s leisure. It is PROFITABLE to discover laws of nature. It is PROFITABLE to compose music, to paint pictures, and to write poems. In general, it is PROFITABLE to do anything that results in greater subjective satisfactions (or even the reduction of subjective dissatisfactions). Since happiness is the general term that describes one’s own evaluation of the totality of one’s own satisfactions, we can now state a definition of PROFIT:

PROFIT IS ANY INCREASE IN HAPPINESS ACQUIRED BY MORAL MEANS.

The expression acquired by moral means is inserted to distinguish PROFIT from plunder, which is any increase in happiness acquired by immoral means, that is, by the employment of coercion. Any intentional act that interferes with the property of another is called an act of coercion.

This definition fully includes - as a sub-category - the financial (or secondary property*⁽²⁾) concept of PROFIT which is customarily employed in the business world. However, the above definition broadens the implications of PROFIT to all human behavior and establishes valid criteria for the determination of PROFIT in a broader and more generalized sense.

The theory of total capitalism*⁽⁴⁾† develops in the generalized market between primary and secondary properties*⁽²⁾ and PROFITS. This interplay produces an entirely new structure to human social organization, which results in true freedom*⁽³⁾ and democracy.*⁽⁷⁾

When this concept of PROFIT is employed consistently, persistently, unequivocally, and without compromise, all of the arguments against PROFIT and the PROFIT motive will disintegrate and will no longer appeal to those who have previously rejected PROFIT on the grounds that it was the equivalent of theft.

This is because all men seek happiness, and, when they achieve it, without coercing anyone else, they will find that they have gained a PROFIT.

† The theory of total capitalism was developed by Andrew J. Galambos and published by him in his Free Enterprise Institute courses 100 (the antecedent of V-50), V-50, and V-201.

* see THRUST FOR FREEDOM issue number indicated in parenthesis.