To Profit or Not

This is one question which no one asks yet everyone has somewhere in the back of the mind.

Is making profit good ….
or is it a sin???

Years of socialistic indoctrination has made us to believe that profit making is a kind of sin and if you are making a profit, you are a criminal. Though the economic reforms have been ushered in , the fact remains that the public mentality and media thought process still remains unduely biased towards the view that profit is a sin.

In reality no enterprise can survive and flourish without profits. What would be the motivation for a entrepreneur to innovate if eventually whatever profit he makes would be seen as a crime?

Exceptions are the PSUs which were supposed to be operating on the “No-Profit-No-Loss” principle though they managed to adhere to the first half of the principle very meticulously. But then is it right that even PSUs should not make profits?

For the matter the Greatest Management Guru ever to be born in India , Kautilya (Chanakya), in his Arthashastra goes on to say that an official who runs a business for the king (In the modern terms, the PSU managers) will be stealing the labour of the workers if he doesn’t generate a decent profit.

And mind you, Kautilya was never in favour of the obscene level of profits , there were some caps on the profits that could be earned.

It hurts me when somebody says in a jealous way (especially the politicised labour unionists) ” Look at the profits they are making, they are looting us!!!”

I am sure when you put these crooks (cant find a better looking word for them) in charge of the enterprises they are criticising, with the ownership rights to it, these same people will turn out to be more profit churners and that too at the cost of the customers. They could be criticising , because no share of profit may have accrued to them.

So next time you see someone turning out a profit, do congratulate them for working to get it and wish them all the best for keeping earning profits, but yes, in moderation….