Innovation has always been driven by profit

Bill Cramer, Las Vegas

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

In the letters to the editor section, so many of your readers express a silly hatred of the profit motive for the development of a new product or service.

Personally, I never bought that old cliche: Necessity is the mother of all inventions.

From the beginning of time, the desire to make a “buck” has always been the real motivation behind every invention. Sure, some were of necessity. Some, like the electric light bulb and the telephone, were not a necessity at the time of their original inception, but later became regarded as a necessity.

Alexander Graham Bell was primarily interested in profits. Why else would he fight so hard for the patent rights. If the profit motive didn’t exist, neither would the electric lights nor the phone you now consider a necessity.

Profit motive is the only reason someone came up with the idea of baby diapers, panty hose, the phonograph, motion pictures, the flushable toilet, etc., all from which some make a living.

Consider our lives without flushable toilets, for instance. They wouldn’t exist were it not for someone’s desire to make a buck. In merry ol’ England they just threw the waste out the window and let the fellow below look out for himself.

Who would want to live like that?

Hopefully, those who find the profit motive so despicable will gain a little wisdom as they grow older and grow up.