Sorry if this isn’t a correct place to ask this question. I don’t understand how non-profit organization exist in capitalism because how do they sustain themselves? How do they pay their workers if they aren’t generating any profit? Isn’t it just volunteering?

  • JoBo
    12·
    11 months ago

    Profit is what is left after everyone has been paid for their work. Non-profits just don’t send any money to idle shareholders, every penny is used for wages and overheads.

    That said, not all non-profits are really non-profits. Acadamy schools in the UK, for example, often pay their board of directors massive sums and contract with firms they’re connected to. So it can be a scam but plenty are genuine.

    • BalabakGuy@lemmy.mlOP
      4·
      11 months ago

      Damn. So, we’ve been lied to all these time that business owners need profits to sustain their business. How did they even hide this basic knowledge from a large percentage of the population?

      • ☭ 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 ☭@lemmygrad.ml
        8·
        11 months ago

        decades or centuries of

        • propaganda about the nature of capitalism and how the “risks” taken by capitalists (which are negligible compared to the risks taken by workers – at worst, a capitalist will become unable to continue to exploit others and be “demoted” to a worker) entitle them to keep the surplus value, and
        • lies about alternative economic systems and the countries in which they are/were implemented in order to promote the idea that, despite its “flaws” (by design), capitalism is less terrible than the alternatives
      • Ronin_5@lemmygrad.ml
        3·
        11 months ago

        Technically, what’s needed to sustain the business is cash flow; enough cash at the end of the pay period to compensate your employees and vendors.

        A lot of R&D businesses and startups don’t make any profit, but they continue operations through loans, in the hopes they discover their niche.

        It’s not really a lie, because in capitalism, profit is mandatory for your business to be sustainable. Non-profits still have to make a gross profit when it’s all said and done. It’s just that they don’t retain a net profit.