THE PROFIT MOTIVE

"The profit motive functions differently in different political systems. In a FREE SYSTEM where government does not intervene in the market place, the profit motive always will manifest itself as COMPETITION, each person or each company trying to deliver better quality products and services at lower prices. That was how it used to be in the early days of America, and that is what led to the greatest outpouring of productivity and abundance the world has ever seen. However, in a COLLECTIVIST SYSTEM where government controls every conceivable aspect of economic and commercial activity (the system that now exists in America), the profit motive always manifests itself as a quest for POLITICAL INFLUENCE and laws to favor one group over another. The net effect is to eliminate competition in the market place. Under collectivism, success is achieved, not by CREATING BETTER PRODUCTS and services for less cost, but by CONTROLLING LEGISLATORS and government agencies. It is a system of LEGALIZED PLUNDER, as Frederic Bastiat called it in his famous treatise, The Law. Unfortunately, it is the system that dominates most of the world today."
--G. Edward Griffin

This is a superb analysis, the kind of analysis that has helped me to understand why a free market is not only more efficient, but also more ethical, than a controlled market, under whatever name.