Thanks Don,

"The legitimate and honorable purpose of business is to provide goods and/or services to its customers, and to provide work and a living wage for its employees. If a business does this, then all is well. It needs to make a profit to insure that it will stay in business and continue in this honorable purpose."

How are things in Camberwick Green these days? If anybody wanted to start a business and went looking for finance to get that business up and running and you stated your legitimate and honourable purpose - you would be laughed out of the door - and quite rightly so.

The sole purpose can only ever be profit - without it you do not have a business. The principal responsibility of any Chairman and Board of Directors, or CEO of any Company is to the shareholders of that company - they own it and the aforementioned are tasked with running it as efficiently as possible and as profitably as possible. Your idealistic picture fails to recognise the following factors and essentials needed for a business to thrive. The inevitable rising costs your outline imparts. The fact that you operate in a competitive environment. The need for research and development and onward investment.