Chicken or Egg
It's an age old question of philosophy. What came first the chicken or the egg? It is cyclic in nature; you can not have one without the other. Although, I did have eggs for breakfast without the chicken and then I had a chicken sandwich for lunch without the eggs. Perhaps the question has more to do with your opinion of creationism versus evolution; I don't know.
. . . and then there is Santa Claus . . . myth or reality? Well, I did meet Santa and I have pictures to prove it. That's right; me and my brother sitting on Santa's lap. However, when I was a bit older, I found my brother bringing a friend from down the street, who was dressed like Santa, to see my little sister. I had to wonder. Was there a conspiracy and my brother was in on it? Me and my sister were being indoctrinated into this charade. But why?
Now that I am older, I am hearing about a new philosophical dilemma. What comes first: the service / product or the profit? To further complicate the situation, beyond that of the chicken and egg concern, is the idea that profit might not actually need to exist.
I believe that society and its economies are complex. My approach regarding the question of service versus profit is that service comes first and profit comes second if the service was needed and was delivered in an efficient manner. Further, the purpose of my profit is to turn around and purchase other services from other people, services, which they can provide more efficiently than I. The more profit that I make, the more services that I can purchase.
Some people believe that profit comes first. When profit is considered first, then the service may or may not have value, but it will yield a profit. Some people call this greed. I agree. However, the one benefit to this type of thinking is that an argument could be made that they do not need to pay a value-added tax, since their product has no value. Nonetheless, this type of thinking must have a limit to the potential profit, because people will eventually determine that there is no value in what they are buying. This last sentence takes me back to one of the reasons that I approach service first rather than profit.
In one sense, I can see how profit does not need to exist, but this is only related to definitions. Services and products come from people, resources, and the ideas and labor of these people. These things already exist. Money, including profit, is actually a common denominator. It is a way to equate the many different services and products that are produced within the economy. For instance, a six pack of cola may cost the same as a gallon of gas or in monetary terms possibly $2.50. It is much easier to use money to purchase products than it is to barter products.
Let me step back. Why does one need profit? Basically stated, profit is the difference between what it costs to make and deliver a product and the amount that is paid for that product. Without this profit, one would have no money available to purchase other products. It is obvious why one would need to purchase other products. In an efficient economy and society where basic and advanced needs are being met, it is most effective for people to specialize and to use the talents which they possess both naturally and through their developmental efforts and to use the resources which are most available to them. No individual will produce everything that they need by themselves. Yes, there are individuals who have wonderd off into the wilderness and lived on their own, but not without the knowledge that they gained by first living within a society.
Even if you did not have the Santa fantasy, you probably learned that it was human nature to want more, first basic needs and then higher level needs. It was profit that propelled the fullfilment of these desires. It was the pursuit of meeting these needs that led to an increase in the overall wealth.
So where does this take us? Let us go back to Santa Claus, that jolly fella who would deliver anything that your little heart desired. You would simply sit on his lap, put in your order, and he would have the slaves, er, I mean elves slap it together for you. Whether he was real or not, it seems that those years of indoctrinating our youth has led to a society that believes, if not in Santa, then, at least, in the concept. So how does it work?
In the modern day world, the role of Santa Claus and his modest North Pole operation has been taken over by Big Government. Apparently, one of the elves had wondered off of the northern plantation and came upon Chicago where he met several individuals who taught him the basics of expanding this Santa concept. He was instructed that he only needed to infiltrate the government and that there he would find an endless supply of goodies to "spread around" and make good cheer. So with magic dust (no wait, that was from an earlier time in this elf's life). . . . So with words of inspiration he went out to dupe the country and the world into believing that "Help is on the way." Soon he and some other radical elves were controlling the show, they were calling the shots in the biggest organization in the world. They were spreading the wealth around.
•· Insurance companies and banks were receiving bailouts in the billions (but careful what you wish for, as there were no more huge paychecks for the corporate executives anymore).
•· Automobile companies too were receiving tons from this powerful Santa-like organization as long as they made windmill powered cars.
•· Soon Uber Santa was promising health care for all.
•· The list was endless.
As for the chicken and the egg, forget it; there would be no more eggs, for they had too much cholesterol; and forget the chicken too, everyone would eat lettuce.
But if nobody had to make a profit anymore, then from where did all of the wealth come? China?
