Why Is Creating Value Good, Profits Bad?

[expat_panama]

"Profit" is a dirty word. Profit-seeking businessmen are stock villains in Hollywood movies. "Occupy Wall Street" protestors demand, "People not profits" (whatever that means). Companies reporting healthy profits are automatically assumed to be exploiting customers and can only atone for this by "giving back" to their communities. "Making a profit" has an unsavory, morally suspect taint.

Yet simultaneously, Americans have a far more positive view of the concept of "creating value." The mainstream press lauds visionary businessmen who "create value," such as the late Steve Jobs of Apple. The business literature routinely emphasizes the importance of "creating value." So many organizations wish to be seen as "creating value" that it has become a business cliche, like "best practices" and "thinking outside the box."

But in a free society, "creating value" and "making a profit" are just two sides of the same coin. Under genuine laissez-faire capitalism, all trades are voluntary. If I buy a new laptop computer from you for $500 in a free market, it means I value the computer more than the $500 and you value the $500 more than the computer. Both of us thus benefit from this exchange.

I've purchased many Apple products over the years, and in each case Steve Jobs gave me something of greater value than the money I gave him in exchange...

Excert, read more at RealClearMarkets.

 

[Truthmatters]

Its not a dirty word.

You and your cohorts PRETEND the people who dont agree with your historically failed ideas hate profits.

Its called straw man arguments.

Its when an advisary can not win the debate on the real facts so they PRETEND the other guy said something he didnt say.

Then they attack what they PRETENDED the other guy said.


Its proof how bankrupt your ideas really are.

 

[expat_panama]

Its not a dirty word. You and your cohorts...

What my cohorts and I do is kind of boring but thanks for showing an interest. I'm a lot more curious about your take that 'profit' isn't a dirty word. These are quotes from Obama:

You don't have some inherent right just to – you know, get a certain amount of profit. If your customers – are being mistreated. That you have to treat them fairly and transparently. News Headlines

"A Washington where decades of trade deals like NAFTA and China have been signed with plenty of protections for corporations and their profits, but none of our environment or our workers who've seen factories shut their doors and millions of jobs disappear, workers whose right to organize and unionize has been under assault for the last eight years.
Barack Obama on Free Trade

“We’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money...There is a time for profit and now is not that time.” Colorado Springs Gazette, CO​

Imagine the quotes with "value" in place of "profit".

 

[TakeAStepBack]

Its when an advisary can not win the debate on the real facts so they PRETEND the other guy said something he didnt say.

Show the real facts then and skip the dramatic show.

You're going to have a hard time proving laissez-faire capitalism is a failure. What has failed is government to protect it from perversion. it turns out, they are actually the culprit of its perversion.

 

[Truthmatters]

the mess was caused by a lack of regulation and lack of enforcment of exsisting regulations.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

You don't even know what laissez-faire capitalism means, do you?


SO, instead, you inject a few soundbites into the thread. Suite.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

To answer the OP, this is all part of the confusion pushed today. The general mass undeerstands absolutely nothing about economics today. I had a few coworkers, and these guys are architects, argue with me that our money is backed by gold. I mean, we haven't been on the standard since 71. People are fucking lost on these issues.

It's just doublespeak to keep people shouting mantras on shit they know nothing about.

 

[expat_panama]

..had a few coworkers, and these guys are architects, argue with me that our money is backed by gold...

Architects.

Thanks. I'll keep that anecdote handy for the next time us engineers get together and swap architect stories...

 

[Wry Catcher]

"Profit" is a dirty word. Profit-seeking businessmen are stock villains in Hollywood movies. "Occupy Wall Street" protestors demand, "People not profits" (whatever that means). Companies reporting healthy profits are automatically assumed to be exploiting customers and can only atone for this by "giving back" to their communities. "Making a profit" has an unsavory, morally suspect taint.

Yet simultaneously, Americans have a far more positive view of the concept of "creating value." The mainstream press lauds visionary businessmen who "create value," such as the late Steve Jobs of Apple. The business literature routinely emphasizes the importance of "creating value." So many organizations wish to be seen as "creating value" that it has become a business cliche, like "best practices" and "thinking outside the box."

But in a free society, "creating value" and "making a profit" are just two sides of the same coin. Under genuine laissez-faire capitalism, all trades are voluntary. If I buy a new laptop computer from you for $500 in a free market, it means I value the computer more than the $500 and you value the $500 more than the computer. Both of us thus benefit from this exchange.

I've purchased many Apple products over the years, and in each case Steve Jobs gave me something of greater value than the money I gave him in exchange...

Excert, read more at RealClearMarkets.

A better question: How do we protect Capitalism from the capitalists?

World history suggests political unrest can be expected when the spread between great wealth and the hoi polloi expands and the latters expectations for a bright future face the reality of economic uncertainty. As the gap between what people want/need and what they can expect increases something must give.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

..had a few coworkers, and these guys are architects, argue with me that our money is backed by gold...

Architects.

Thanks. I'll keep that anecdote handy for the next time us engineers get together and swap architect stories...

I'm an engineer too. So, in that regard, we probably could make a whole new thread on them. It just signals that even the well educated, are seriously ignorant on economics.


Cheers.

 

[expat_panama]

...even the well educated, are seriously ignorant on economics...

True, and thinking of Paul Krugboy that applies even to well educated Nobel laureates