[GreeniFi]

It’s maybe not quite so simple and you need to keep an eye on externalities. I’d adjust your formula, somewhat crudely, into:

Social benefit = profit - externalities.

Sadly, most businesses on that construction are negative social benefit.

And that’s down to our bawbag accounting system.

[daniel-s]

That's pretty absurd. You just said that most companies are on net a burden on our society.

Let me check. Yep, can confirm that we do not live in a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

If what you said were true, we would probably not live in a world where most people spend <5% of their day hunting/gathering food, transportation is ubiquitous and universally available, lifespans are unnaturally long, media and entertainment is ubiquitous and caters to every imaginable taste.... I could go on.

Further, given the absensce of the hellscape, if your assertion were true, the balance of benefit to provide our world—in which such a wide range of human wants or needs are easily satisfied—would have to come from a very small number of super companies that are providing the overwhelming surplus of benefits that make our world what it is. I feel that one or few companies that miraculously provides all value to humanity and is our great salvation would probably be a household name... And I'm pretty sure it's not Apple or Telsa.

[GreeniFi]

you’re right. We don’t live in a hellscape yet. But slow drawdown of environmental capital could bring this about. Climate change is the foremost example of this.