profits are a good thing
profit is excess capital leftover after a consumer pays for something produced by a business.
when a consumer buys from a business, they signal that the return that they are expecting to receive is greater than the price that they are willing to pay. if that isn't the case, the consumer would never make the purchase.
in other words, consumers would not purchase from a business if their expected returns are lower than the material cost.
this means that for a market of businesses & consumers to work, both parties must be receiving excess of what they put in. hence, profit must be positive sum, and not zero-sum.
- if the business is given the short end of the stick, then the business would not last very long because they are operating at a loss.
- there are ways around this through funding, but it doesn't last forever. you must turn a profit at some point.
- if consumers get the short end of the stick, then they would no longer purchase from that business, and would encourage others potential consumers to not purchase from that business either.
profits are what motivate people to create technology that improve our lives. the notion of "corporate bad" is a popular one, and it's the easy way out. the harder way out is to build something that makes you a profit, and makes the consumer richer.
by increasing taxes, taxing on unrealized gains, or redistributing wealth, you hurt all of humanity in a few ways
- people are not as motivated to make profit, so progress will stall
- less businesses will be created due to the lack of opportunity
- everyone is poorer [1][2]
- millions will die [3]
[1] you cannot sufficiently rely on governments to create progress. you cannot rely on the redistribution of wealth & the authority of the government to build you technology that will make you richer.
[2] I don't only mean in the capital sense.