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In keeping with the labor theory of value, Karl Marx viewed profit as a form of theft; the product of excess labor taken from workers by industrialists. This view ignores the real world of voluntary economic activity, including the role of human action in producing demand for a product based upon its utility and availability of alternatives, supply and demand for labor, and the central role of price discovery in creating markets for goods and services. Without profit, price discovery becomes impossible (and instead artificially imposed by government) and supply and demand are accordingly distorted.

The point is that Obama comprehends none of this and is even less interested in ever discussing the issues involved because they get in the way of what he and every other socialist ultimately desires: power over others.

andy58 is correct in his analysis that this President is committed to "another" ideology and, while fearing rejection if he outright rejects capitalism, he throws in gratuitous acknowledgements of "free enterprise" or "profits" here and there, while disavowing the very elements of individual freedom which are at their roots.

The ideology he embraces holds that some imperfect people in positions of power in a society will make better decisions than millions of other likewise imperfect, but free, individuals in that society can or will make for themselves and their neighbors.

Of interest on another FR thread today is a New York Times article cited in NRO by Rich Lowry which tells us just which Obama "advisors" made up his debate prep team for Denver.

Remember Anita Dunn--his former Communications Director? She is one of them. That is important to learn, for it highlights the philosophy and philosopher whose influence is being felt throughout America today, but whose ideas are hidden behind a broad smile and a misleading promise of "caring."

Does anyone remember this remark from early November 2008? "At a Virginia rally -— 'If you’ll stand with me, then I know that we can win Virginia and we can win this election and we can finally bring the change we need to Washington,' Obama told the estimated crowd of 35,000. 'I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here.'”

Then, there is this quote from Chairman Mao:

“The ill wind of opportunism is falling, the righteous wind of socialism is on the rise.”

In light of recent events, is it just possible that Anita Dunn wrote the remarks for the Virginia rally? After all, he is her "go to" philosopher.

There is no wonder that she has resurfaced as a debate prepper. After all, her "pupil" might forget some of Chairman Mao's best lines!

The ideas of Mao and Marx are the ideas of tyranny, and they are antithetical to the ideas of liberty as lived out in the lives of America's Founders, including Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.

“Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines which conflict with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence…let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountains whose waters spring close to the blood of the Revolution.” (Abraham Lincoln)