profit motive

American  

noun

1. the desire for profit that motivates one to engage in business ventures.

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profit motive Cultural  

1. The ability to earn profits as the reason for producers to make and sell goods.

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The profit motive is often called a great good or a great evil in society. On the one hand, it is said to represent selfishness; on the other, it is said to drive the free market system. (See invisible hand.)

Etymology

Origin of profit motive

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

The profit motive would keep such firms away from remote, sparsely populated, low-tech communities that need public weather infrastructure the most, such as Kentucky’s Amish neighborhoods; it would also mean that these companies would charge for the costs of providing forecasts and information that the feds offer for free thanks to taxes.

From Slate

Earth Liberation Front, an association of militant environmentalists, claimed responsibility for the attacks at the time, saying it had been intended to take the profit motive away from the companies responsible for pollution.

From Los Angeles Times

And it enables us to not have it exclusively tied to the profit motive, which it currently is; if you don't qualify Medicaid or Medicare, it is exclusively tied to the profit motive.

From Salon

I think it is focusing on concrete issues like health care, like housing, like wages, but in doing so, making sure that the solutions are centered around the public good and not entirely informed by the profit motive.

From Salon

Now, Delgado is urging the Democratic Party to adopt a new vision for the future of New York and the United States, focusing on material concerns like economic security while criticizing his own party as prioritizing the demands of corporations — and the profit motive — at the expense of working people.

From Salon