re: #408 Political Atheist

You are confusing our philosophical difference with accounting terms misunderstnding.

Not really - you initially said that profit was necessary for R&D. That’s more than an accounting term misunderstanding. Profit is what is left over after you’ve paid for stuff like R&D. If you ran a company in a technological field with the idea that R&D was eating into your profit margin, you would not run it for very long.

I have no problem with net profit existing apart from in excess or exploitative.

Do you have a problem with private individuals making a profit from a company that is guaranteed against failure by the government, in the form of insurance that would otherwise be unaffordable?