On the business of life

[drwex]

I'm mostly dumping this here so I can reference it later, but commentary is welcome. This came out of a discussion of the relationship of WiiTID to the profitability of the enterprises that employ people like me:

Profit is like health, to a corporation. You have to have it, and more is good. But it's not the reason for existence.

Comments

[drwex]

...except the people who wanted the building in the first place? Would such an enterprise stay in business long if it was known to make money but fail to deliver product?

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

The developer isn't building a strip mall because he feels an existential need for a strip mall in his life - he's building it to sell it, or lease it, and to profit thereby. He'll be upset if he doesn't get his strip mall, but not because he wanted the mall per se, but because taking his money and denying him a profit opportunity will make him cross.

The only exception are the two classes of Owners who build buildings intended to lose money from the start - governments and school districts.

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

(I suppose private homeowners might also be construed to be a class who build without regard to profit, but since homeownership is generally considered a major asset for a family, I'm inclined to exclude them.)

[dpolicar]

Although homeowners doing custom construction for residential use will often make decisions that maximize their enjoyment of their home rather than maximizing the profit they'll realize on liquidation of assets, which seems like damned weird behavior if we say their primary goal is making a profit rather than owning a home.

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Homes are usually considered an asset - but they are rarely a well-managed one. :-)

Though, in fairness, unless your time frame for turning over a property is fairly short (say, three years or under) chosing to maximize enjoyment is rational, insofar as it becomes extremely difficult to predict what features will be considered desirable by consumers in the more distant future. It could also be construed as rational in that you're more likely to want to take care of a house you like over the long haul, and thus preserve its value.