At the outset, prudence would suggest an introduction to the cast of characters that will make up this short narrative, and in so doing, an attempt to describe the conundrum in which they find themselves. After familiarizing ourselves with the core dilemma of the story, a potential solution will be offered in the form of a hybrid-business model.

Profit, that mischievous little devil, has been on the scene a long time, and most of us would be familiar with some lay definition of this much maligned actor — for these purposes I refer to it as the portion of the proceeds from a business that remain after accounting for all its operating expenses. Profit is our chief protagonist in this story, and from such simple beginnings doth a host of problems emerge.

To grasp the underlying conflict of the drama, the profit problem as it were, it is necessary to understand the fundamental relevance of profit to human wellbeing. While this may sound like the type of task a philosopher would set for themselves at the outset of particularly lengthy tome, but I will contend that the relevance of profit to the human wellbeing is deceptively simple.

First, it should be manifestly evident that profit is not of biological interest to humans per say, in that the principle itself can neither nourish tissue nor keep the rain off of one’s head, as other more tangible items can. While not of any survival value in the simplest sense, I suspect profit would likely be of little interest to humans outside of one important point– it has hitherto been useful as a broad indicator of the well-being for groups of humans. That is, it can be a stand in for other things which more closely reflect human well-being.

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