Yes, I am sayign above that (some) people see “Profit” as just a tool, a means to an end, as opposed to a “way of life” which is how some people also see “profit”.

The concept of “profit” is not viewed universally in the same way by all people. There is a spectrum of conceptualizations.

Profit is calculated as the difference between the price a consumer pays and the costs the owners of physical sources paid for that round of production. Wages are a one of those costs, and are paid to workers as compensation for the skill and time applied to goals they may otherwise have no interest in.

Perfectly decentralized production (only achievable for brief periods of time because of the dynamic nature of collectives) would have ownership continuously distributed to the consumers by treating any amount they pay above cost as their own investment so that competition is perfected (though never quite perfect) at a rate that is higher at first when the consumers have little control, and tapering toward zero as each user becomes a partial collective owner.

Wages are a valid cost that will always need to be paid in some form when we are trading labor for the purpose of specialization, but profit can be minimized and nearly eliminated in an indirect fashion when object users become physical source owners according to the amount they are willing to invest as measured by what is traditionally called profit.

—
Dustin Puryear
Author, Best Practices for Managing Linux and UNIX Servers
http://www.puryear-it.com

Profit, for many people, is a means to an end. I think many poeple, if they had a choice, would not focus their lives on money alone.