Word: profitably
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...capitalist economy, profit is, above all, the motivator...
However, as the era of capitalism dawned two centuries ago, the profit motive found an able defender. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argued that profits are the legitimate return for risk and effort and that the "Invisible Hand" of market forces would convert private greed into public benefits. A century later, Karl Marx was not so sure. Arguing the opposite view, he asserted that labor, not capital, was the essential ingredient that added value to goods or raw materials in the manufacturing process. Thus, in his view, profit was the "surplus value" that the capitalist unjustifiably tacked...
Without a hope of reasonable profit, no one would start a business, introduce a new product or service, or even continue producing an old one. And without the reality of profit, no business in the long run can keep itself alive-except by government subsidy, which has to be paid partly out of taxes levied on the profits of other businesses. Says Democratic Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin, often a critic of U.S. business: "Profits are what drive this great economy...
...true that the Soviet Union suffers from natural handicaps, including bad weather and arid soil. Even so, the basic problem is its communal farming system, which fails to provide the farmers with sufficient motivation. The dismal results are well known; Moscow must buy huge tonnages of grain from the profit-seeking farmers...
...Profit is also important as a measure of efficiency in industrial enterprises-a way of keeping economic score. Whether a business is well or badly run, whether investments are productive or misguided, whether the products are competitive and appealing-judging performance without reference to profits is like watching a baseball game where nobody bothers to count runs. Again, the Soviet experience has demonstrated the efficacy of profits. For years a Soviet factory manager fulfilled his quota under the central plan by turning out a certain amount of goods regardless of expense or popular demand. But now, in order to improve...