Gain from effort
About
Economic gain is an idea basic to all life. It should not be (but often is) confused with profit, which cannot exist independent of a capitalist society.
Definition
Economic gain occurs when an entity expends a particular type of value on a particular project which then returns greater value than was originally spent.
An "entity" can be, for example:
- an individual organism -- expending stored energy to gain food, which can be consumed to replenish that energy as well as provide extra energy (profit) for non-food-gathering activities
- an individual's possessions -- planting some grain instead of eating it in order to grow more grain (profit)
- a group of people --
- trading food for tools to help grow or gather more food
- constructing defenses around a village to protect people and possessions
- tending to the sick so that their skills and knowledge will remain available on recovery
- providing sustenance for the infirm, so that their wisdom will remain available
- a society --
- spending time and energy to make paths so that travel takes less time and energy
- tending to "useless" members of society in order to cultivate empathy and kindness
- spending resources creating art in order to increase general enjoyment of life
- providing mutual protection and aid to minimize attrition from major mishaps too large for individuals to overcome alone
Although this activity could be described as "profit" from "investment", it is not:
- Investment requires a socially-enforceable contract to repay a loan.
- Loaning requires social recognition that the owner of the loaned value continues to own it even while it is "invested".
- Profit requires social recognition that the owner of the loaned value is entitled to all of the economic gain from its "investment".
Economic gain does not require any of these things. In the examples given above, it merely makes use of known natural laws or behaviors to produce net-positive benefit. One or more entities may be held responsible if the project does not do as well as expected, but nobody would be expected to "repay" the expended value as if it were merely a "loan".