Making a profit in and of itself IS the “greater good.”
Do you understand how business profits benefit nearly everyone in society, even the non-owners?
Without profits, businesses have no reason to exist.
“Making a profit in and of itself IS the “greater good.””
Making a profit is the byproduct - albeit, an important one. The greater good is to work in a manner that pleases God by doing business in a fair and honest manner that is a credit to you and a benefit to society.
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“Do you understand how business profits benefit nearly everyone in society, even the non-owners?”
If you detach profitability from moral obligation you would have to conclude that any profitable business endevour is good for society. Pornography, the drug trade, prostitution - all highly profitable, yet they morally undermine society.
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“Without profits, businesses have no reason to exist.”
The protestant work ethic would insist that the reason for any business is to please God - both on an individual and corporate level.
I know this sounds strange, but this is the very basis for a free market. In a similar way, personal ethics is the basis of a free society. When personal ethics disappear, the free society will soon disappear also.
John Adams put it very clearly: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”
The same applies to the free market.