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@feddit.uk
    ·
    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.ml
      ·
      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
        ·
        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
        ·
        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.