How The Profit-Economy is structured

We all know that any Industry is guided by the profit motive, but we want to look into the actual structures which produce this behavior. Beyond the general culturally imbedded desires to seek more and more profits, there are also real pressures which require an Industry, whether it be agricultural, pharmaceutical, tech, etc to seek constant profit.

We’ll put it nice and short: Essentially all Industry, no matter how large, has investors and shareholders who invest their own money into an Industry so that the Industry has the resources required to operate at a competitive capacity.

If those investors feel as though the performance of that Industry is failing or will fail to give them returns on their investment, they pull out their investment, as the reason they invest is to receive returns.

For Industry, losing investors can be disastrous. This lack of investment could mean ceasing operations or failing to have the resources to perform competitively, ultimately leading to their demise in the long run. They may have to downsize, increase prices, sell capital, etc.

So for Industry leaders, they are compelled to pursue profits often at the expense of their own workers and of the working class in order to meet the interests of investors and shareholders to prevent going under, losing to competitors, or losing their job.

Understanding this structure is crucial to understanding the actions and motivations of any private Industry, from the systemic usage of pesticides to increase yields to increase profit, to gouging the prices of prescription medicine, to moving production offshores where labor is cheaper, to underpaying their workforce, etc.