Profit can also be the value of the labour you put into something. If you buy wood, build a table, then sell it for more than the value of the wood, then that profit is the value of your labour.
No. Profit is revenue in excess of costs, yes, but the cost of building a table isn’t merely the cost of the materials. Costs also include the time and effort spent building the table, the time and effort spent learning to build tables, and the cost of acquiring tools with which to build, and the cost of having a space in which to build.
When you factor these other costs in to the table, the builder breaks even. Yes, even if they end up with more money than with which they started. They simply exchanged their time and effort for money, but they can never get that time back can they?
Most people would understand “profit” to mean the net flow of money, not value. If you redefine it this way, then you can no longer look at the “profit” line of a company’s sheets and say that they’re stealing because the number is positive.
queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Instead of paying workers what they are worth, they are paid a market wage that is always less than the value they produce.
That’s where profit comes from.
howrar@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Profit can also be the value of the labour you put into something. If you buy wood, build a table, then sell it for more than the value of the wood, then that profit is the value of your labour.
queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
No. Profit is revenue in excess of costs, yes, but the cost of building a table isn’t merely the cost of the materials. Costs also include the time and effort spent building the table, the time and effort spent learning to build tables, and the cost of acquiring tools with which to build, and the cost of having a space in which to build.
When you factor these other costs in to the table, the builder breaks even. Yes, even if they end up with more money than with which they started. They simply exchanged their time and effort for money, but they can never get that time back can they?
howrar@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Most people would understand “profit” to mean the net flow of money, not value. If you redefine it this way, then you can no longer look at the “profit” line of a company’s sheets and say that they’re stealing because the number is positive.