The
Purpose of a Business
Businesses were created by man for the sole purpose of
providing a product or service to the people, to fill a need, to serve man–not
to rule him. The sole justification for the very existence of a business is
that purpose–none other. If a business does not provide that product or service
for which it was established on an honest and competitive basis; if a business
does not fulfill a need; it cannot justify its existence. The perpetuation of a
business for any other reason is a travesty and a distortion of the economy. Profit,
contrary to popular thinking, is not the purpose of a business. Profit is an expense
of doing business, the same as the electric bill, the rent, insurance, payroll,
etc. Profit is the rent payable to the businesses investor(s). If it doesn't
pay its bills or make a profit to pay its investors, it will not be able to
remain in business. The business investor must receive his pay, too. You don’t
claim that the purpose of a business is to pay a landlord. Neither should you
claim that the purpose of a business is to pay the utility company or the
investor. Satisfaction of the customer’s or client’s needs is its ultimate
purpose.
In arguing this very important
anomaly with those who vehemently insist that the purpose of a business is to
make a profit, what I just said may seem to be a silly play on words, but it
certainly is not. There is a difference. There is a significant difference
between profit being the goal or purpose of a business as opposed to the
purpose of a business being to provide a product, service, or to fulfill a need
being such–a difference that is the major cause of a critical problem in our
economy and in our government today. The whole focus of the economy is
distorted. As such, business today (admittedly, not all) has become a tool of the
corporate oligarchy, the power elite, used to dominate and take advantage of
the people they are supposed to serve. There is a difference between earning a
profit for one’s investor(s) and profiteering for excessive power and gain.
Ronald Miller
mtss86@bellsouth.net
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