ABSTRACT
Businessmen habitually complain about the economic illiteracy of the public, and with good reason. But the same businessmen who so loudly complain about economic illiteracy are themselves the worst offenders. They do not seem to know the first thing about profit and profitability. For the essential fact about profit is that there is no such thing. There are only costs. Profit is also tomorrow's jobs and tomorrow's pensions. Profit is not peculiar to capitalism. It is a prerequisite for any economic system. There is no conflict between profit and social responsibility. To earn enough to cover the genuine costs, which only the so-called profit can cover, is economic and social responsibility, indeed it is the specific social and economic responsibility of business. It is not the business that earns a profit adequate to its genuine costs of capital, to the risks of tomorrow and to the needs of tomorrow's worker and pensioner, that 'rips off' society.
