No profit means no value creation, the company is doing nothing. This part isn't true. If you take inputs and combine them into something the market values mor

No profit means no value creation, the company is doing nothing. This part isn't true. If you take inputs and combine them into something the market values more than the uncombined inputs, the process of combining them creates value, regardless of what price tag you put on the end product. The question then is who gets the value you created. If there is very little competition among producers, you might be able to charge a price well above your cost and keep most of the value for yourself in the form of profit (the buyers will still get some of it or they won't buy). If there is brutal competition, you might have to sell at cost just to avoid losing money from fixed costs (ex: property tax) that would have to be paid even if you sold nothing. If you combine the inputs into something the consumer values more than those inputs but charge the consumer the cost of the inputs, you DO create value by combining the inputs and ALL of the value you create goes to the consumer. Profit isn't inefficiency, it is the incentive to remove inefficiency. This part IS true. Profit is an (if not "the") incentive to remove inefficiency, though profit is not an inevitable consequence of removing inefficiency. If your competitors also remove the inefficiency, the extra value may not stay with the producers in the form of profit but go to the buyers.