Why I Love “Obscene” Profits
by Vivian Yess Wadlin

Admittedly, “obscene” is the word of choice used by people who don’t make any (or enough) profit. They use the word to define the outcome of very successful business models. A successful business perceives a need, finds a solution, and provides it in the marketplace at a price people are willing and able to pay. You find the adjective, “obscene”, used almost exclusively by pandering politicians, government employees (who by the way, make more than the average taxpayer), socialists of all stripes, government bureaucrats, community organizers, and assorted business failures.

They all mean that somehow “the public” must have been duped or cheated for any entity to make profits of “that magnitude.” It is never defined what that magnitude is nor is the amount of investment that created the profit in question ever discussed. The value of the driving idea, the rate of return on the investment, the research and development costs, the investment in terms of time to bring the profitable enterprise into being are also glossed over, if acknowledged at all.

Congress members act as if they produce something of value and act as heroes when they give away what they have not earned. Remember: Government activity produces nothing of real value. If it did, it would not have to tax you. Government can only give by confiscating from its truly successful sector— a productive individual or business enterprise. Yes, Congress can and does “borrow,” but that is just a hidden confiscation of your wealth. When Washington can no longer honestly pay its debt, its printing presses begin paying it. Inflation is less painful for politicians than taxing, but it is ultimately destructive for a nation.

The politician is always there protecting you from the company earning “obscene” profits, and which, God forbid, pays their executives–based on contractual obligations–obscene salaries.

Profit to government is a flag. It uses profit to target businesses that are satisfying the desires of a large number of people. Profit gives bureaucrats a straw man. Honest profits are only available to individuals and businesses who buy or produce scarce resources (any resource that is not free), reconfigures them, and turns out something that their fellow human beings are willing to trade hard-earned dollars to acquire. That is, if the market is allowed to operate unimpeded. Big “if,” I admit.

Where the market is left unimpeded, and where individual efforts have succeeded, there is the possibility of temporary, but very large, in government-speak, “obscene” profit. (Low profit or outright failure is simply an indication the business is not supplying something people want at a price they can afford).

Why I really love any “obscene” profit though, is they are a “turn on.” Any large profit is a beacon to other entrepreneurs to compete. It says “Look here! This is a product or service that people want. You can make money here. Come. Compete. Do better. Make more people happy, healthy, wealthy, or wise. Get rich.”

As soon as other entrepreneurs enter the market, price drops. More of us can afford the product. The profit normally drops and additional resources are not then sequestered for additional units of that product or service.The businesses are not expanding output because the profit margin is shrinking. That is, unless the originator or the new competitors add something so wonderful that the consumer is willing to pay more for it. Through time, the “”obscene”” profit continues to provide us with better and better, and/or less expensive, things. Most often, both.


I’ve never seen a justly acquired profit, tiny, “obscene”, or pornographic, that did not inspire my admiration for the person or company earning it. The sooner you fall in love with “obscene” profits, the sooner we can tell the political class their truly obscene game is over.

Don’t let them make you believe that productive people are your enemy. Envy is not attractive. Profit is.