Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

I've lately noticed that the term "for profit" is being equated to being evil. The government and media in Canada constantly intone that non-profit healthcare and childcare are vastly superior to those that generate profits. The government actually suggests that non-profit healthcare is a Canadian value.

Yet comparisons are dubious at best. All childcare facilities must follows the same provincial standards, and salaries must be comparable or they wouldn't be able to retain staff. But non-profit organizations are eligible for grants that for-profit institutions are not.

The same is true of healthcare. Though a non-profit hospital can run a deficit expecting the government to bail them out, while a private hospital could not.

This all seems to stem from some arbitrary unproven belief that non-profit groups care, while for-profit organizations do not, merely because they chase profits at all cost. This ignores the obvious fact that the for-profits have more reason to be efficient, yet must also provide service that is at least good enough to keep customers coming back in a competitive environment. The fact that they do have customers proves that they are achieving this goal.

Before we decide that profits are evil it would be good to keep in mind that profit-generating companies are the economic engine of a country. They create jobs, pay taxes and enable their employees to do so also. If it weren't for those jobs then there would need for childcare, non-profit or otherwise.And if it weren't for those taxes there wouldn't be free healthcare in Canada either.

Profit is good. And companies that seek a profit aren't automatically bad.