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Posted

I just wanted to thank the final caller on that recent call in show for presenting the Zeitgeist Movement's ideas in a more chewable fashion than Peter Joseph. I think this is the debate that many of us were hoping would happen between Stef and PJ but didn't quite make it there. Even though I think the caller needs to be a bit more rigorous on his definitions of objectivity and subjectivity, I do appreciate him presenting the ideas and enabling a very useful and productive conversation between himself and Stef.

Posted

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but it seems to me that much of the hatred for profit comes from a lack of understanding of what price is, how it is determined, and what profit is. The naive individual can look at a price tag and imagine, "if only they didn't get a profit, the price would be lower, and I would get it for cheaper!" They see the product as having some sort of inherent, objective price, and see the store as overcharging for the sake of a profit. But the product does not have an inherent price - rather the price is determined by what the market is willing to bear.

 

I think of this as an attempt to divorce the concept of price from reality - i.e., from the capability of the seller to sustain and grow his business, fulfill his own values and happiness, in order to consider the business a worthwhile endeavor. Business owners don't run the business as an end in itself, but as a means to their own happiness, which is facilitated by gaining a profit on the trade. With the profit motive, the business would not exist, and there would be no trade. Any attempt to circumvent this will end in failure, as it is an attempt to circumvent human nature.

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