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I feel like profits need a re-branding campaign. It's so easy to paint them as a negative, and even the most vocal capitalists will shrug and suggest they're so

I feel like profits need a re-branding campaign. It's so easy to paint them as a negative, and even the most vocal capitalists will shrug and suggest they're something neutral. Profits are a signal, and a powerful one at that. Outside of rent seeking, which I regard as fairly rare, profits signal that an entrepreneur is delivering value in excess of the costs to produce the value. Spread out over the size of a community, region, or nation, that's like magic! Furthermore, they're not cold and unemotional, as is suggested here. Value almost always has an emotional component. The profitable condos that people want to build aren't going to be inhabited by automatons. They'll be inhabited by people - people who will date, get married, have children, people that will graduate from high school and college, people that will march in parades, protest in political movements, enjoy and create culture. To look at the value that companies want to create in this space like a shameless cash grabs ignores the very humanity that assigns that value in the first place. Profits are not evil. They're a signal of efficient production of value, and value implies a benefit for humanity.

CptFribble 8y ago
I feel like sweatshops need a re-branding campaign. It's so easy to paint them as a negative, and even the most vocal capitalists will shrug and suggest they're something neutral. Sweatshops are a tool, and a powerful one at that. As opposed to outright slavery, which I regard as fairly rare, sweatshops are used by entrepreneurs to deliver value in excess of the costs to produce the value. Spread out over the size of a community, region, or nation, that's like magic! Furthermore, they're not cold and unemotional, as is suggested here. Value almost always has an emotional component. The profitable clothes that sweatshops produce aren't going to be worn by automatons. They'll be worn by people - people who will date, get married, have children, people that will graduate from high school and college, people that will march in parades, protest in political movements, enjoy and create culture. To look at the value that companies want to create in sweatshops like a shameless cash grab ignores the very humanity that assigns that value in the first place. Sweatshops are not evil. They're a tool for efficient production of value, and value implies a benefit for humanity.
- iguy 8y ago
  Yup! Sweatshop (n.) Factory located in a country whose peasant farmers are so poor that I'd rather not think about them, and serving an export market.
  - skookumchuck 8y ago
    People who work in sweatshops do so because the alternatives are worse. The sweatshops tend to disappear as the surrounding economy gets more prosperous, and people have more choices.
tareqak 8y ago
Profits are not evil on their own: the choices of which costs that are paid, and which costs are externalized (read: paid for by someone else without a correct combination of consent and total knowledge) all together add up to some value on the virtuous-neutral-vice scale.
sooheon 8y ago
> Outside of rent seeking, which I regard as fairly rare This is a big assumption to make. Successful rent seeking is very much a constant interest of profitable organizations--why would a business leave low risk, high margin money on the table? Competition for rentier status would be just as lively as market competition were it not for regulation, and even with it the focus only shifts to competition for regulatory capture.
keko039ndnfm 8y ago
That’s too reductionist. Big corps are making huge profits while laying people off. Pursuit of an outcome alone isn’t enough. The process too must be in service to humanity at large to reach your conclusion. Too many processes today benefit a minority.
skookumchuck 8y ago
Profits are what drives the economy forward. They provide the capital to expand operations and create new ones. They also provide the surplus needed to deal with pollution and other externalities. It's not a coincidence that unfree economies are the worst environmental disasters.

CptFribble 8y ago

I feel like sweatshops need a re-branding campaign. It's so easy to paint them as a negative, and even the most vocal capitalists will shrug and suggest they're something neutral. Sweatshops are a tool, and a powerful one at that. As opposed to outright slavery, which I regard as fairly rare, sweatshops are used by entrepreneurs to deliver value in excess of the costs to produce the value. Spread out over the size of a community, region, or nation, that's like magic! Furthermore, they're not cold and unemotional, as is suggested here. Value almost always has an emotional component. The profitable clothes that sweatshops produce aren't going to be worn by automatons. They'll be worn by people - people who will date, get married, have children, people that will graduate from high school and college, people that will march in parades, protest in political movements, enjoy and create culture. To look at the value that companies want to create in sweatshops like a shameless cash grab ignores the very humanity that assigns that value in the first place. Sweatshops are not evil. They're a tool for efficient production of value, and value implies a benefit for humanity.

iguy 8y ago
Yup! Sweatshop (n.) Factory located in a country whose peasant farmers are so poor that I'd rather not think about them, and serving an export market.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  People who work in sweatshops do so because the alternatives are worse. The sweatshops tend to disappear as the surrounding economy gets more prosperous, and people have more choices.

tareqak 8y ago

Profits are not evil on their own: the choices of which costs that are paid, and which costs are externalized (read: paid for by someone else without a correct combination of consent and total knowledge) all together add up to some value on the virtuous-neutral-vice scale.

sooheon 8y ago

> Outside of rent seeking, which I regard as fairly rare This is a big assumption to make. Successful rent seeking is very much a constant interest of profitable organizations--why would a business leave low risk, high margin money on the table? Competition for rentier status would be just as lively as market competition were it not for regulation, and even with it the focus only shifts to competition for regulatory capture.

keko039ndnfm 8y ago

That’s too reductionist. Big corps are making huge profits while laying people off. Pursuit of an outcome alone isn’t enough. The process too must be in service to humanity at large to reach your conclusion. Too many processes today benefit a minority.

skookumchuck 8y ago

Profits are what drives the economy forward. They provide the capital to expand operations and create new ones. They also provide the surplus needed to deal with pollution and other externalities. It's not a coincidence that unfree economies are the worst environmental disasters.