“The principal axiom in their theory was: Everything can be proved, and everything can be disproved; and in the process, one must profit as much from the folly of others, and from his own superiority, as he can.” ProcessTheoryProfitFollyPrincipalSuperiorityAxioms Author:Moses Mendelssohn
“Adam Smith's image of competition in the marketplace was intended as an adjunct to his detailed description of human motivation in The Theory of Moral Sentiments , in which the pursuit of profit is tempered at every juncture by sympathy and benevolence, and by the posture of the "impartial spectator" which is forced on us by our moral nature.” HumansMotivationMoralTheoryCompetitionProfitPursuitDescriptionSentimentsAdamSpectatorsMarketplaceBenevolencePostureJuncture Author:Ted Malloch
“American society has tried so hard and so ably to defend the practice and theory of production for profit and not primarily for use that now it has succeeded in making its jobs and products profitable and useless.” HardUseJobsPracticeProductsTheoryProfitProductionsUselessProfitableAmerican Society Book:Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society Source: Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society
“Everybody was being decent, and when people are decent, thing work out for everybody. That has been my theory all through life. If you're making money, let the other fellow make it too. If somebody's getting hurt, it's bad, but if you can work a thing out so that everybody profits that's the ideal business.” PeopleIfsHas BeensHurtTheoryIdealsFellowsProfitWork OutMaking MoneyDecentGetting HurtThings Work Out Book:At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf Source: At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf
“Most of Marx's predictions have failed to materialize, and his labor theory of value and other ideas have been proven wrong. Marx failed to recognize the incentive system built into the capitalist model - consumer choice and the profit motive of the entrepreneur. The irony is that capitalism, not socialism or Marxism, that has liberated the worker from the chains of poverty, monopoly, war, and oppression, and has better achieved Marx's vision of a millennium of hope, peace, abundance, leisure, and aesthetic expression for the 'full' human being.” HumansHas BeensIdeasWarValuesChoicesHuman BeingsVisionPovertyExpressionTheoryModelsCapitalismBuiltLaborEntrepreneurWorkersProfitSocialismOppressionChainsConsumersIronyMotiveAbundanceAestheticCapitalistLeisureProvenPredictionsIncentivesMonopolyMarxismLiberatedMillenniumProfit MotiveProven WrongConsumer Choice Author:Mark Skousen
“The unhappy theory of business ethics is this: you have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit. Period. To do anything other than that is to cheat your investors. And in a competitive world, you don't have much wiggle room here.” WorldRoomsResponsibilityTheoryPeriodsEthicsProfitUnhappyInvestorsCheatBusiness EthicsFiduciary Author:Seth Godin
“There are all sorts of institutions in the economic world which depart from the simple price/market model which I worked on in an earlier incarnation and which has been sort of the mainstream of economic theories since Adam Smith and David Ricardo. There are all sorts of contractual relations between firms and individuals which do not conform to the simple price theory - profit-sharing schemes and so forth - and the explanation for these suddenly became clear. We now understand why these emerged and that they are based on differences in information in the economy.” WorldHas BeensIndividualDifferencesSimpleEconomyClearEconomicInformationTheoryModelsRelationInstitutionsProfitFirmExplanationAdamMainstreamSchemesConformIncarnationEconomic TheoryProfit Sharing Author:Kenneth Arrow
“My primary early interest was in marketing and my aim was to improve its theories, methods and tools. Early on I pressed companies to adopt a consumer orientation and to be in the value creation business. I didn't pay much attention to the social responsibilities of business until later. Now I am pressing companies to address the triple bottom line: people, the planet, and profits. I found that companies were too much into short term profit maximization and they needed to invest more in sustainability thinking.” PeopleThinkingValuesFoundSocialTermInterestLinesPayAttentionResponsibilityCompanyToo MuchCreationPlanetsTheoryNeededToolsAimMethodBottomMarketingProfitPrimariesConsumersAddressesSustainabilitySocial ResponsibilityBottom LineShort TermOrientationProfit Maximization Author:Philip Kotler
“Journalism was being whittled away by a Wall Street theory that profits can be maximized by minimizing the product.” StreetsProductsTheoryWallProfitJournalismMinimizing Author:Russell Baker