Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Are Not For Profits More Virtuous? No.

In many ways, quite the opposite. From Arnold Kling (via Beata):

I think that profit-seeking enterprises serve the community, also. In fact, they do it in a way that is more sustainable and more accountable. It is more sustainable, in that the value of what they produce is greater than the cost of the resources (including labor) that they use. Otherwise, they would not make a profit. However, a non-profit can very well use more resources than the value of what it produces. A profit-seeking enterprise is more accountable, in that a profit-seeking business must satisfy consumers or else go out of business. Hence, it must provide something of value to its customers. On the other hand, if a non-profit fails to provide any benefit to its customers, it still might be able to obtain grants from the government or from donors.
More here (Arnold Kling).

2 comments:

Brandon McLean said...

Trooooooolled.

Clement Wan said...

Welcome to my blog Brandon ;)