> That would be a weird definition of profit. That's fine. I'm using layman's definitions of these words so that we can avoid the "What do you mean you don't w

> That would be a weird definition of profit. That's fine. I'm using layman's definitions of these words so that we can avoid the "What do you mean you don't want my business to make a profit?!?! What sort of MONSTER are you??" style of soundbites. Jargon has its place and can be very, very, very valuable. However, in the realm of economics, jargon obscures far more often than it illuminates. > But yeah, people think they pay too much for everything... Some people do, yes. If you're of the opinion that businesses working together to ensure that they extract every penny possible from all of their customers would not result in people consistently paying too much for everything, then I ask you why you're not taking the amount of money that you're underpaying for each and all of your goods and services and donating that (whether to charity, or directly to the businesses that are undercharging you). [0] Don't forget to structure your donations so that you have to choose between having the occasional luxury or maintaining a very small emergency savings fund... after all, all of that consumer surplus needs to be captured, doesn't it? [0] Assuming that you're not already doing this, of course.