>SNIP

Doug,

Looks like we agree on the basics.

My main point is that, very soon now I believe, we will really have to take away that line of "making profit for their owners" as justification for business decisions. This is because it has come to mean two different things to two widely disparate groups of individuals.

The 'moral/altruistic" group uses it in the traditional sense while the (growing too fast) business leaders group (and their sycophants) use it as 'code' to mean "go ahead and do whatever it takes regardless of the external concequences".

I see a possible solution as stopping to use that phrase and questioning for precise details whenever someone else uses it to justify something.

Jim