[TeMPOraL]

> It seems you could argue that profit is the one true number that _is_ a good measure

A measure of what? As a proxy for social utility, it's been thoroughly gamed and the two have little correlation.

Profit is currently used as a self-serving measure, because you can eat profit (after exchanging it for bread, or drugs, or yachts). In this sense it can't be hacked. Accounting around it can be and is, though.