Profit is an indicator of success

In recent years “profit” has become something of a dirty word and corporations have been encouraged to seek wider social goals following an agenda of so-called “social responsibility”. I would like to start by saying a word or two in defence of “profit”. As the Pope has just been here, I am going to start by referring to
Catholic social teaching
– and then I will not refer to it again explicitly. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church describes profit as an ‘indicator’ that a business is performing well and that the productive factors have been properly employed. This is true – profit is a signal that important ends are being achieved by a business.