At several points in my MS program, which was a blend of MBA course and high-tech study, the notion was asserted to students that profit was the only reason for being in business -- this tired proposition was trotted out as a kind of mantra or ancient truism which could not be gainsaid. Every time one of the profs trotted out, I raised objections on exactly the grounds Carol is talking about -- that profit motives that are not balanced by an understanding of long term dynamics make for destructive short-term choices with short-term profits and long-term harm attached to them.

While a number of the students in those courserooms heard my point with interest, most of the professors just smiled and nodded, being unwilling to re-evaluate their hoary truisms so close to the bone.

It was an interesting experience and a study in the kind of willful ignoral human minds can embrace when they think they have a good fixed datum and don't want to shake it up.

A