Doc Edward Morbius ⭕​<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://masto.ai/@SharkAttak" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>SharkAttak</span></a></span> A chief failure of the profit motive is that it cares not a whit where profit comes from.</p><p>If profit derived only from <em>wealth</em> as defined by Adam Smith ("the produce and labour of the nation"), that would be fine.</p><p>But profit is in fact an <em>accounting</em> artefact, not an economic one. That bit of equivocation is at the heart of a great deal of the apparent contradictions and fallacies of mainstream economics.</p><p><em>Profit</em> is based on <em>realised costs and revenues</em>, which means that <em>any</em> trick which can be used to lower or offset / externalise costs, and to inflate or capture revenues, is a net gain to the business.</p><p>That's why "free market" entrepreneurs are not in fact in favour of free markets <em>where they can secure higher profits by suppressing free markets</em>. Whether that's through dumping toxic waste (physical or informational), fraud, slavery, labour oppression, tax avoidance, quashing or buying competitors, oppressing suppliers, inserting themselves as middlemen in trade (capturing <em>both</em> supplier <em>and</em> consumer surplus), monopolisation, regulatory capture, lobbying, or any of the other abuses.</p><p>Markets <em>can</em> be effective, but generally only where there is a <em>balance</em> of power between capital, labour, government, and common weal generally. If you read Smith closely you'll find that he's a champion of <em>small scale</em> commerce, but casts a jaundiced eye on monopolies (he doesn't use that word, but search for "engross" within <em>Wealth</em> and you'll find some mention), and those who can influence the State to their own interests (wool merchants get a call-out).</p><p>As best as I've been able to trace, it, the principles of cost accounting in the US were set out by Alexander Hamilton Church (and yes, related to <em>that</em> A.H.), see: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton_Church" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexande</span><span class="invisible">r_Hamilton_Church</span></a>.</p><p>There's a wonderful inquiry into cost accounting by Leo Tolstoy in, I think in <em>What Is To Be Done</em>, (sometimes "What Then Must We Do") a collection of essays: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F_(Tolstoy)" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_</span><span class="invisible">to_Be_Done%3F_(Tolstoy)</span></a> <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/leo-tolstoy-what-is-to-be-done" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">theanarchistlibrary.org/librar</span><span class="invisible">y/leo-tolstoy-what-is-to-be-done</span></a>.</p><p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://glitch.social/@Gotterdammerung" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Gotterdammerung</span></a></span> </p><p>I'm pretty sure <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>pluralistic</span></a></span> is aware of much of this but AHC may be of interest.</p><p><a href="https://toot.cat/tags/Economics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Economics</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/EconomicFallacies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EconomicFallacies</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/equivocation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>equivocation</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/profit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>profit</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/wealth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wealth</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/ProfitVsWealth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ProfitVsWealth</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/AlexanderHamiltonChurch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AlexanderHamiltonChurch</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/accounting" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>accounting</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/FreeMarkets" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FreeMarkets</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/LeoTolstoy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LeoTolstoy</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/WhatIsToBeDone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WhatIsToBeDone</span></a> <a href="https://toot.cat/tags/WhatThenMustWeDo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WhatThenMustWeDo</span></a></p>