Let me begin by addressing the essence of a point made to me—the idea that profit or capital is somehow separate from the fulfillment one derives from the creative process or from acts of teaching and learning.
Those expressing this speak of the joy in seeing minds grow and flourish, which is indeed a deeply personal reward. But to separate this from the broader context of value, and particularly the creation of value, is to misunderstand the true nature of human achievement and the role that profit plays.
Profit is not merely a material gain. It is the moral recognition that your efforts have brought something into existence that did not exist before—something that others, through their own judgment, deem valuable enough to exchange for. The satisfaction you feel in teaching is undoubtedly a form of reward, but make no mistake, the paycheck you receive is not an arbitrary or secondary consideration. It is a concrete acknowledgment that what you provide—the guidance, the knowledge, the structure you impart—has value in a marketplace of human interaction. To dismiss it as a mere tool to survive is to diminish the profound nature of this exchange.
You mention inventions like penicillin that were given freely, with no immediate profit motive. But understand this: the creation of such breakthroughs, even without direct capital in mind, required vast resources, knowledge, and the human drive to act upon ideas. Those resources had to be created somewhere, by someone, through the profit of previous innovations. Progress does not happen in isolation from value creation—it is inseparable from it. Even in the absence of a direct profit motive, the systems, the infrastructure, the resources that enable such altruistic acts are rooted in the creation of wealth.
Your work as a teacher is productive because it is based on the transmission of knowledge—an act of creating value in the minds of your students. You derive personal fulfillment from this, as you should. But fulfillment alone does not sustain the process. Without the profit that flows from value creation, whether in education or any other field, the systems that allow you to teach, to have the resources you need, to engage in this productive work, would not exist.
It is not the case that money is the primary motivator of all human action, nor should it be. But to deny that profit is the moral reward for the creation of value, to suggest that it is disconnected from progress and innovation, is to misunderstand the deeper, objective reality of human existence. Capital is the recognition that the world has been changed, improved, and that such change is worth rewarding. Without that, we fall into the trap of believing that effort, divorced from consequence or exchange, can somehow sustain itself.
Never underestimate the importance of receiving the moral reward for your work, whether in the form of fulfillment or capital. Both are integrally tied to the creation of value and the achievement of progress. The teacher, the inventor, the entrepreneur—they all stand on the same moral ground when their work leads to the advancement of human life.
S. Tominaga AKA CSW
Oct 20, 2024
https://x.com/CsTominaga/status/1847875132234064202?t=qTGnCUJ_7yVv6faiWmKBcw&s=19
https://t.me/S_Tominaga/1511
Those expressing this speak of the joy in seeing minds grow and flourish, which is indeed a deeply personal reward. But to separate this from the broader context of value, and particularly the creation of value, is to misunderstand the true nature of human achievement and the role that profit plays.
Profit is not merely a material gain. It is the moral recognition that your efforts have brought something into existence that did not exist before—something that others, through their own judgment, deem valuable enough to exchange for. The satisfaction you feel in teaching is undoubtedly a form of reward, but make no mistake, the paycheck you receive is not an arbitrary or secondary consideration. It is a concrete acknowledgment that what you provide—the guidance, the knowledge, the structure you impart—has value in a marketplace of human interaction. To dismiss it as a mere tool to survive is to diminish the profound nature of this exchange.
You mention inventions like penicillin that were given freely, with no immediate profit motive. But understand this: the creation of such breakthroughs, even without direct capital in mind, required vast resources, knowledge, and the human drive to act upon ideas. Those resources had to be created somewhere, by someone, through the profit of previous innovations. Progress does not happen in isolation from value creation—it is inseparable from it. Even in the absence of a direct profit motive, the systems, the infrastructure, the resources that enable such altruistic acts are rooted in the creation of wealth.
Your work as a teacher is productive because it is based on the transmission of knowledge—an act of creating value in the minds of your students. You derive personal fulfillment from this, as you should. But fulfillment alone does not sustain the process. Without the profit that flows from value creation, whether in education or any other field, the systems that allow you to teach, to have the resources you need, to engage in this productive work, would not exist.
It is not the case that money is the primary motivator of all human action, nor should it be. But to deny that profit is the moral reward for the creation of value, to suggest that it is disconnected from progress and innovation, is to misunderstand the deeper, objective reality of human existence. Capital is the recognition that the world has been changed, improved, and that such change is worth rewarding. Without that, we fall into the trap of believing that effort, divorced from consequence or exchange, can somehow sustain itself.
Never underestimate the importance of receiving the moral reward for your work, whether in the form of fulfillment or capital. Both are integrally tied to the creation of value and the achievement of progress. The teacher, the inventor, the entrepreneur—they all stand on the same moral ground when their work leads to the advancement of human life.
S. Tominaga AKA CSW
Oct 20, 2024
https://x.com/CsTominaga/status/1847875132234064202?t=qTGnCUJ_7yVv6faiWmKBcw&s=19
https://t.me/S_Tominaga/1511
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