On 9 Dec 99, at 10:37, briangordon@mindspring.com wrote:
> I think that profit is not a good motive for individuals or organizations.
> Profit is necessary for both: Individuals will starve, organizations
> require profit to carry out their other goals. I believe that individuals
> and society would be healthier if both individuals and organizations
> committed to a higher goal of improving society in some way. Even Gandhi
> always balanced the books and stayed in the black!
I agree with you, Brian. My very very personal opinion is that work
without commitment to other values besides money is less meaningful than
it could be. That said, some people see work simply as a way of surviving,
where money is the tool to do so, and place their activities of meaning
elsewhere.
But I've gotten to the point in my life where I understand more than I
used to, and realize that our economic system is so complex that there
isn't a one or the other, money or community, dichotomy.
Our free market, capitalist system is based on the premise that it is to
the common good to have a competitive, market driven and money driven
society, BECAUSE it is better than any alternative yet suggested. The
pursuit of money, while it leaves me cold, allows companies to grow, to
develop, to draw investment, to employ people, to return money to
shareholders, to pay pensions, to finance foundations (Gates is an
example), and tons more.
If one is going to suggest that this change, then it seems to me, that to
be coherent, one would have to describe how a society NOT based on profit
would work. And so far, the best minds of the world have not been able to
make those descriptions into reality.
So where does that leave us? It leaves us with personal choices about what
WE want to do with our lives, but to suggest what companies "ought" to do
or think seems futile.
Marx, Mao, Castro criticized the profit motive, and all have failed,
leaving their countries in a terrible economic state because they couldn't
make something different work (yet).
So, until I see people taking your position come up with something that
relates to changing THIS world, rather than an ideal one, I will continue
to wonder what assumptions are being held about possible alternatives.
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