
Tim O'Reilly: The heart of what is best in capitalism - Sato
https://plus.google.com/107033731246200681024/posts/iZvW7pgcy6m
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Thrymr
This line is great: "profit in a business is like gas in a car. You don't want
to run out of gas, but neither do you want to think that your road trip is a
tour of gas stations."

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crikli
I've used a similar analogy frequently, that profit is to my business as fuel
is to an aircraft. I want as much profit as I can get not because I'm greedy
but because I want to stay in their air as long as possible, constantly making
longer and more adventurous flights.

My biz might be just a little four-place Cessna right now but my goal is to
someday be a nice Boeing Business Jet.

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OstiaAntica
The problem isn't Wall Street greed. The problem is that the government
rescued the banks with public bailouts, at a time when a true capitalist
system would have put them out of business.

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samstave
You are seeing a delineation between wall street/banks/government which is not
there.

The problem IS [wall street/banks/government] GREED

All of Obama's top advisers are GS and banking cartel.

Thus we transfer all our wealth to them.

Just like when all of Bush/Cheney's cabinet (including Cheney) were all from
the MIC cartel - we transferred all our wealth to them.

This is 30 minutes worth your time:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KDeUsWsUhKU)

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lukifer
David Icke? The guy who thinks the world is run by alien reptiles? _Really?_

I'm the biggest conspiracy theorist there is (Conspiracy 0: hijacking the term
"conspiracy"), but this guy flips my bozo bit.

That said, his description of fractional reserve banking is mostly accurate;
it just seems an odd source when there are so many good video and text
diatribes on the subject.

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samstave
True - but there is not a single thing I can find wrong with this statement.
This is one of the best arguments against what is going on right now that I
have seen.

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brc
I always get a prickly uncomfortable feeling whenever a business leader comes
out and says 'profits aren't the most important thing'. It's this type of
wording that can give life to stupid ideas such as 'you can run a business
without making a profit'.

I also lose respect for business leaders who try and paper over their success
with motherhood statements like 'I wasn't in it for the money', when clearly
they enjoy the trappings of wealth.

People should be proud to state they are chasing a profit, proud to make
profits, proud to have successful, profitable businesses. It's impossible to
make profits without providing value for other people. Profits (for the most
part, over the long run) are just a recognition that you're productive and are
providing something of value.

My take on this particular piece is that a focus on _short term profits_ is a
mistake, and that a focus on long term value through great products and
innovation is the right choice. Because long term value creation should
necessarily result in profits.

But I just wish more people would have the gumption to say 'I made a big set
of money hats for myself, my investors and my employees, and I feel great
about it'.

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yequalsx
But sometimes the value added is not morally obtained. Western countries
derive a lot of value from resource rich countries that are impoverished.
Unfortunately that value often times comes at the expense of great
environmental and social damage done to these countries.

Chasing profits for the sake of profit without regard to morality is bad. As a
famous saying goes, the love of money is the root of all evil. It's not true
in every case but the spirit of the adage is true and society ought not to
forget this.

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brc
I disagree with you on so many levels it would be hard to know where to start.
Yours is the type of comment I referenced as woolly thinking that comes from
people declaring that profits aren't really necessary.

Of course environmental degradation is a poor outcome for everyone involved.
But that has nothing to do with making profits. An unprofitable enterprise is
more likely to be damaging the environment than a profitable one.

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yequalsx
Do you have any data to back up the claim that unprofitable enterprises are
more likely to be damaging to the environment than profitable ones? I doubt
very much that you can find such data. I'm open minded enough to consider such
data.

As an example of my doubt that such data can be found I'll note that oil wells
and pipelines in Nigeria are much more likely to leak crude than pipelines in
the U.S. Regulations are in place precisely because in the absence of such
regulations companies will not engage in environmentally safe operations.
Countries that lack a decent regulatory governing structure are the ones that
have the most environmental damage from mining and oil extraction.

I didn't say anything about profit being necessary or unnecessary. I said that
profit without considering moral implications is bad.

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brc
No I don't have any data, because no such data would exist or would be very
hard to collate.

I can look at the environmental condition and record of any heavily controlled
economy or region, or one where nobody has ever really made a profit anywhere.
Chernobyl is a grand example. Google is another - they have the profits in
order to implement best-practice environmental standards for their operations
and buildings, to sponsor world-changing initiatives. Many things that
wouldn't be possible without healthy corporate profits. A struggling search
engine company wouldn't be trying to power their datacentres with renewable
energy or doing many of their other things.

I've done enough travel to know the filthiest, most polluted places are those
where profitable companies don't exist.

Your example of Nigeria just shows that countries mired in poverty and lack of
productivity and wealth lack the resources and ability to implement strong
environmental controls.

Any oil company involved with a leaking pipeline is not going to be as
profitable as one with a pipeline that doesn't leak.

I personally know people who work in the oil industry in developing nations.
The popular image of people like this is of cowboys with no regard for the
environment, yet they, and the companies they work for, work hard to get
things right. But it's not always possible in a corrupt environment where
rewards don't go necessarily to those that work the hardest, but those who
have the connections.

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chrismealy
Hint: that's not capitalism.

