Making money isn’t evil …
… Making money being evil is evil.
Thanks for that sentiment Kneale Mann. Kneale had tweeted that some time ago and I often reflect back on that thought. Money in and of itself isn’t evil … go figure. However, I sometimes encounter the sentiment that for profit and social venture is mutually exclusive. Somehow making money is evil and implies that you are only in it for the money.
I am a huge supporter of ethical capitalism. If you are in business then you are in business to make money. Customers exchange their money for your service or product and that is all good. If you are making money at it even better because that means you are providing value. A for profit business can be a social venture and help to create wealth and value for the local/global economy.
Over the course of my two week holiday I have spent a bit of time reading a number of innovation reports. Interestingly enough the Legatum Prosperity Institute ranks the relative prosperity of 233 nations (Canada is 7 by the way … we can do better but that topic is for another day) on nine sub-indices. One of the sub-indices is Economic Fundamentals. For the 90% of countries that have achieved the minimum level of monetary success more money does not significantly improve quality of life. However, for those bottom 10% of countries that have not secured the minimum level of success then nothing but money will improve the quality of life. If you think money isn’t the most important thing then try living without it.
Some of the most successful entrepreneurs turn philanthropist after achieving success. Through their creation of abundance they help others. Abundance is a great thing … scarcity creates problems.
I firmly believe that an organization can be both for profit AND a social venture,
Ian Graham
Good post Ian and this reminds me of Bill Liao =).
Making money can in fact be the opposite of evil.
I’ve been reading some great books recently, including some on this very topic by Muhammad Yunus, the father of micro-credit and a Nobel laureate.
He has been pushing hard for a type of business that sits between traditional for profit business and non-profits called a social business. Micro-credit is a great example. You provide funds to low income entrepreneurs at a reasonable interest. The return gets folded back into the pool of money that can be disbursed to others or to provide medical care or education for the family of the borrower. Those that invest cannot take out any more than they put in initially.
More on Yunus and social business here: http://www.muhammadyunus.org/Social-Business/social-business/
I think making money is not the issue, it is loving the money, as an object, more than anything in the world, that is evil.
Very good article, I enjoyed it a lot.
Christine
Thank you for the comments Cory, Allan and Christine.
Good points about micro-credit / micro-finance Allan and I am a huge fan of the concept.
Christine, I agree if money is viewed and the end game then there is not much good in that. however, if you view money as an enabler good things then that is good.
I think of the arguments about the merits of focusing on “making money” is that often the profit is a result of externalized costs and the price does not reflect the true cost to society.
/Mike
Mike, a little different take than I had intended by an interesting perspective you bring.
The challenge with the true cost as it applies equally to all organizations is perhaps less a function of profit and more political will. The changes required to reflect the true cost to society of any product need to come from a policy discussion.
The failed attempt at an eco tax IMHO provide further evidence that there needs to be a holistic change in attitude toward true cost before there can be any sort of accounting solution that could be implemented by business. The triple bottom line is still a little fuzzy.
An investor in some show about investing (…) recently said (to the one doing the pitch):
“Do you have any adversity for being wealthy? Cos some people do. They’re called communists.”
This attitude is evil.