Is a profit motive necessary?
The best answer to this question is that most people work without the incentive of profitright nowin capitalist society. Ask the worker in a steel plant, or a textile mill, or a coal mine, how much profit he receives for his labor, and hell tell you, quite correctly, that he gets no profit at allthat profit goes to the owner of the plant, mill, or mine. Why, then, does the worker work? If profit is not his incentive, what is? Most people, in capitalist society, work because they have to. If they didnt work, they couldnt eat. Its that simple. They work, not for profits, but for wages, in order to get the wherewithal to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves and their families. There would be the same compulsion under socialismpeople would work in order to earn a living. Socialism offers additional incentives to work which capitalism cannot offer. For whose sake are the workers asked to exert themselves to increase output? Under socialism the appeal to work hard and well is based on the ju
