Chris Rock once japed that

the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon.' Need I say more?

But yes, the world has gone not so much crazy as stark raving free range nuts as so some reason & despite the benefit that it bestows upon everyone, profit seems to have become a dirty word.

Put the word into Google & you get end a just about endless list not-for-profit or non-profit making organisations – oh, & a cursory glace at some of these sites might lead the casual reader to conclude that only by not making any form of financial return can you be ‘ethical’ … whatever the hell that is supposed to mean when its at home.

There was once a (happier) time when not only manners & common courtesy prevailed but companies that made returned regular profits were applauded & the individuals behind those companies were lauded as examples to all. These days every time that one of the successor companies to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil makes record returns, they are vilified & spongers that comprise our body politic, become relentless in their demands that the State to immediately seize those monies so that they can be frittered away on every work shy sponger that can’t be bothered to get a job.

The world has gone mad when even nut jobs like Kim Jong-il tell the happy workers of North Korea they need to be thinking about trying to make some money so that the lights can stay on for more than an hour a day; yet in Australia (& what on earth has been going on in Australia recently?) for example

Trade Unions have urged the remaining of Australia's major banks not to raise interest rates. National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking Group were the first to raise their variable home loan rates last week without a preceding rise from the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) wants the remaining banks to put working families ahead of annual profits. "ANZ and NAB's decisions to raise interest rates were simply greedy," ACTU president Sharan Burrow said.

Gecko was right when he said that greed is good & without profits there would be no incentive for anyone to do anything. Profit isn’t a dirty word & the sooner people recognise that money might not buy you love (eh, Paul) but with wealth comes a certain contentment, the better. After all, rather spiffy series 7 BMWs don’t just buy themselves you know.