Profit is the price of incentive. Absent the promise of profit, no one would have the least idea what anything truly costs. If goods were provided without reference to the value of time, energy, knowledge, or ability, they would reflect only the cost of raw materials rather than their true value when transformed into commodities, leading to a scarcity of everything. See: Socialism.
I was talking with a young college grad nitwit about this the other day and he responded with "yeah but there hasn't been a REAL socialist country yet.." - sigh -