this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
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If I buy a bunch of seeds, plant them, grow a bunch of vegetables, and sell the vegetables for more than the price I paid for everything (seeds, fertilizer, tool wear and tear, and any other expenses related to the garden), I have made a profit. It doesn’t come at the expense of anyone.
It wouldn’t be fair to insist I sell the vegetables at exactly the cost of everything I put into them. I put my own labour into growing them and bringing them to market. If I couldn’t profit by selling them then I wouldn’t sell them, I’d just eat them myself or not even bother growing them at all.
Where do you think the person who paid you got the money, and the person who gave them their money, etc.
Economics is not a closed system where everything cycles around with perfect precision, each person have exactly the amount of money required at a time and paying exactly the right price for exactly the right supply.
"Profit" is after labour costs. If you are the one selling the seeds, or managing the operation, you pay yourself for that work before profit.
It's a funny example, because many of the "farm coops" that actually sell seeds and agriculture supplies are already non-profit structures.
Even debts to creditors supplying capital are before profit. Profit is the surplus that is un-earned, and the direct result of charging more than necessary, or under-paying for supplies, labour, or capital.
This is known as the free gifts of nature.
Another "gift" of nature is its capacity to absorb and remediate the pollution from our industries. Some of us have grown rich by exploiting this capacity, although unlike solar power there is a limit.
Not to contradict you in any way. But just to introduce the concept for the unfamiliar