Profit Motive

Most businesses are driven to maximize profit, but what does this drive really mean in action? In Profit Motive: What Drives the Things We Do economist Charles Sauer makes the case that identifying your own and others’ “Profit Motives” provides the foundation for running a successful business, being an effective leader, a good consumer, and getting what you really want out of life. In this highly praised new treatise on economic behavior, Sauer examines how businesses make decisions in pricing and employment and how the search for long-term profit can mean adopting practices that may seem contrary to fundamental capitalist principles. But the Profit Motive analysis goes well beyond the realm of finance and corporate decision-making to explain how gaining a profit, or a benefit, is the motivating force behind an endless array of choices made by everyone from large organizations to individuals and their families―and everything in between.

Charles Sauer Charles Sauer is an economist and policy specialist. He has spent time on Capitol Hill working for the Chairman of the Finance Committee; he has worked for a Governor on tax, immigration, and labor issues; and was Deputy Legislative Director for an academic think tank focusing on tax, finance, and healthcare. On the Hill he is known for developing free market solutions and effective legislative coalitions. Charles runs the Market Institute, is a founder of the Savings and Retirement Foundation, Co-Director of the Inventor’s Project, and host of the Prosperity Caucus. Charles is a Weekly Standard contributor and has written for Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, Entpreneur.com, The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, and numerous other publications. Additionally, Charles Sauer appears weekly on both One America News as well as the Big Picture with Thom Hartmann.