Home Cultural Issues Other Cultural Issues Prager 5 Minute Videos Profits Are Progressive | 5 Minute Video
Prager 5 Minute Videos

Profits Are Progressive | 5 Minute Video

46
17
0



Is profit a dirty word? Would the world be better off without them? Or are profits progressive — the only thing that can move potatoes from Idaho to Manhattan and medicine from America to Africa? Professor and economist Walter Williams explains.

🚨 PragerU is experiencing severe censorship on Big Tech platforms. Go to https://www.prageru.com/ to watch our videos free from censorship!

SUBSCRIBE 👉 https://www.prageru.com/join/

📲 Take PragerU videos with you everywhere you go. Download our free mobile app!
Download for Apple iOS ➡ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prage…
Download for Android ➡ https://play.google.com/store/apps/de…

📳 Join PragerU’s text list! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru

SHOP! 🛒 Love PragerU? Visit our store today! https://shop.prageru.com/

Script:

What’s profit? And why is it so important to everyone, not just business owners and entrepreneurs?

Here’s a simple quiz: When you spend $100 on a new pair of shoes does the shop owner get to keep that $100?

The answer, of course, is…no.

The shop owner has to pay all his business costs: employee salaries, inventory, rent, supplies, taxes and a dozen other expenses. His profit is what’s left over. It’s his payment for the time and money he’s spent and the risk that he’s taken to keep his business going.

Thank goodness for profits. Profits motivate people to work hard for themselves and make life better for others.

Take the example of Bill Gates. How did he become so wealthy? The answer is that he came up with something that millions of people so wanted and needed that they reached into their pockets to pay for it — his Windows operating system, Word software and other Microsoft products. What’s more he produced these products in a way that efficiently used resources.
And what motivated him, and just about every other successful entrepreneur, to work so hard? The answer is …profits.

Without the incentive of profits, why would anyone spend his savings, work countless hours, and take all the risks necessary to bring their product or service to the marketplace? There’s a simple answer: they wouldn’t.

You don’t have make billions like Bill Gates.

Take a Montana cattle rancher who goes out in the dead of winter, even in blizzards, to feed his cows, to keep them safe, and care for them, making huge personal sacrifices so that New Yorkers can sit down to eat a nice steak.

Why does that rancher do that? Do you think he does it because he loves New Yorkers? Of course not! The rancher tends to his cattle because he wants more for himself and his family. He wants profits.

You can go to a supermarket any day of the week and if you want steak, they have it. If you want potatoes, they have them. Sugar, salt, potato chips, strawberries, peanut butter — they have it. In fact, the average well-stocked supermarket in the United States has over fifty-thousand different items on its shelves. How does all that get there? It seems like magic, but it’s not.

Every one of those items is on the shelves thanks to one thing — profit.
The same holds true for the device you’re watching this video course on — whether it’s a TV, a desktop or laptop computer, a smart phone, or a tablet.
And for every component in those devices! They all exist — as millions of other products we treasure and depend upon exist — because of the profit motive. No profit and it all goes away.

Here’s another reason the profit motive is so important. Ask yourself this question: Which establishments do you tend to be most dissatisfied with? The answer is likely to be government agencies. Why? Because they don’t operate for profit. So no one is rewarded for good work and almost no one is ever punished for inferior work.

And which establishments are you most satisfied with? The answer is likely to be the ones that operate on a for-profit basis. If I’m unhappy with, say, a department store like Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s because it’s not providing me with the goods or services that I want, I can, in essence, fire that store by taking my business elsewhere.

For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/videos/profits-are-progressive

source

Click to rate this post!
[Total: 0 Average: 0]
Post Views: 17
Tags adam smithcapitalismcommunismdennis pragereconomicsfree enterpriseFree MarketGeorge Mason Universitymilton friedmanpragerprager universityprageruprofitsProgressiveprogressivismsocialismtaxesWalter Williamswealth of nations
Previous Post
1726759002_maxresdefault.jpg

Is It Possible That Mormonism Is True?

Next Post
1723129916_maxresdefault.jpg

Bake for Them Two?

Related posts

Leave your comment

46 Comments

  1. Desire for profit can lead to good things and bad things. What’s important is that we have policies that allow us to enjoy the good things that desire for profit brings and allow us to avoid the bad things that desire for profit brings

  5. Ok the computer example is actual lies I never thought Prague U would lie all the main components like motion Censers, touch screens, micro chips all of there came form government or military spending and innovation payed for by OUR tax money

    the same is true for many other things the German government in ww2 made the jet engine and the American government expanded on it no profit motive there

  9. Goood, not anyone else, but bill gates and profit…

    how about his non profit organization then? it says and register as “non profit” foundation, if according to the logic here provide, either that organization is making profit the public don't know or it shouldn't excist? is that organization produce something everybody needs or everyone wants? neither! it is not apple and he is not steve job. he never create something everybody “wants to have one”, we use it because “there is no choice”. such as the up coming vaccine passport? it violates simple logic, how come an app in your phone can protect you from infection of virus? we don't “want” one, but those countries with him force us to use one or you are going nowhere, that's a “no choice”, don't mix up with “needs”, nobody “need” this thing he create.

    they both make hugh profit from their company but we don't see them same type of people.

  10. Well thanks to the profit motive, much of the world has become a darker place. So I disagree with him. Look at Detroit for example, once a thriving metropolis thanks in part to the automobile industry, until General Motors turned its back on the city. Due to its greed and reckless behaviour, GM shut down all the assembly lines that helped keep Detroit alive and sent all the jobs overseas to China and Mexico. Why? The Profit Motive! Since labour in those 2 countries is much cheaper, hence they can keep car prices down and profits up. Unfair and unjust!

  13. the video has some flaws,it makes proffits look like something perfect that never drives people into doing unethical things to maximaze them and that quality always translates to proffits.there are many companies that harm their employees their customers and the community to make money and stay on buisness.

    also "firing" a company does nothing,I am not purchasing EA's games but this does not stop them from buying other studios.and not buying konami games does not stop them from blacklisting everyone who quits their job making it almost impossible for them to get a job anywhere on the industry.

    also government agencies are not always that bad,the FDA once prevented an entire health crisis from happening because they refused to aprove a medicine that wasn't tested on pregnants(and the company actively refused to test it).
    if the government gets rid of the FDA then companies will be able to legally release under-tested medicines to the market and be able to straight up lie to the consumers about what is in the foods they buy.

    what are we gonna do then?wait for a private company to do FDA's job?
    yeah right,this company will probably get bribed all the time and lose its reliability,after all its customers would be the companies that make the products not the people who consume them.

    also I want to make clear that I support capitalism,I am just pointing out that he makes proffits look better motive than they are and that he is overestimating thte power of the consumer,that's all.

  29. PRAGER U You screwed up LOOK IN TO BILL GATES. he sold MS Dos To be on IBM PC computers at $300~(I am not sure as exact amount) per Computer plus a 1 million dollars up front then bought dos from his friend that actually programmed it for $50,000. he used his special Harvard friends to get the meeting with IBM. after his business had a "good" reputation xerox hired bill team to do the final code review on xerox X windows the X is xerox. he literally copied and pasted and stole all of it and claimed it as his own! if computer manufactures wanted 1 copy of his OS to be on their computers he required their computers would only have his OS. he killed illegally Netscape web browser by incorporating Explorer in to his OS making it impossible to uninstall. BILL GATES IS NOT A CAPITALIST he is a progressive leftist, robber Barron mercantilism leftest insider that uses his connection to RENT SEEK, BILL loves monopolies, uses copyright law to gain unfair advantages and crush competition. don't rewrite history like the leftest. Capitalism is about increasing competition, not special privileges for the "correct" politically connected companies.

  30. I disagree. Bill bought code written by somone else. Then when steve jobs asked bill for help with his ideas bill stole the innovation from steve. Thats what maid bill successful. Then he sold out and started to pick up where his dad left off with eugenics. Bill is an old fashioned scoundrel turned murderer and sterilizer threw his vaccines. A real POS

  31. Control the means of production equals profit. If I can produce 10× what the average Joe can produce I have a direct ability to demand higher wages. $10hr×10 or $30hr×1 what do you think is cheaper and more profitable for the company.

  38. The reason why Bill Gates and Paul Allen became so successful is because they BELIEVE in what they were doing. It was a passion for changing the way people look at software. Profit was simply the byproduct of their passion for software. They love computers and software. Most companies (especially startups) that have been motivated by profit are mostly dead. The crappiest products and services in the world are motivated by profit. If you're planning on starting a company that's motivated by profit, you can bet you'll be dead in 1-3 years since that's when you mostly make nothing those years. But if you're motivated by something bigger, your company will become successful and money won't be an issue.

  41. Is it greedy and selfish to work for money? Is wanting money greedy? Is it greedy to ask an employer for MORE money? Is it greedy for entry level workers to demand a higher minimum wage?
    All work is done in exchange for profit. Workers perform labor for money. Why is that not considered greedy and selfish, but a business doing the same is? Isn't it considerably more selfish and greedy to demand that the government take from productive people and give to non productive people? Isn't it just envy and greed that motivates the Left? They want MORE without having to do the hard work to get it. They're whole philosophy is based on how much "leisure time" they can get. Mark made a big deal out of taking stuff from the producers, so the non-producers could have the same stuff without having to work, thus giving them more leisure time to do art and what-not.
    Marxism truly is about lazy people who reject the idea that man has to work if he wants to eat. They want to bypass that truth. But, the problem is some poor sap has to perform labor to grow the food and build the houses and make the clothing that all these lazy leftists "need" to survive but won't lift a finger to help produce. Basically, if you take this ideology to it's logical conclusion, Marxism needs slaves to feed, house, clothe and entertain the marxists. And that is exactly how it has played out in history.

  43. Makes me think of Enjoy Life. They make delicious gluten free cookies.
    And also Celiac specialty, which makes extremely delicious cakes, donuts, and cookies. When I graduate college, I'm going to buy myself a sheet cake from them for Graduation. Yum.