Rehumanizing Profit: A Paradigm Intervention for Regenerative Futures

If profit maximization is the designed cause of systemic harm, what is the redesigned alternative? Building on the systemic diagnosis developed in Paper I, which identifies profit-centric logic as a root driver of interconnected urban, psychological, educational, and ecological crises, this paper argues that meaningful transformation requires a paradigmatic intervention: redefining the purpose of business itself. The prevailing conception of business as a profit-maximizing entity is not a natural law but a historically contingent epistemic construct that functions as both cognitive and institutional infrastructure, shaping how economic actors interpret responsibility, legitimacy, and success. In response, the paper proposes redefining business as an entity that solves social issues and creates social value in a financially sustainable way. This redefinition operates as a high-leverage systems intervention by shifting the foundational goal around which economic activity is organized. Rather than treating profit as the primary objective, it reframes profit as an enabling condition for sustained value creation, thereby realigning economic activity with broader social and ecological outcomes. The paper examines the implications of this redefinition across four interrelated dimensions: business as a social problem-solving institution; planned obsolescence as a principle of responsible institutional impermanence; profit as a means rather than an end; and multidimensional and systemic social value. Together, these dimensions articulate a coherent organizational logic in which purpose shapes time horizons, time horizons redefine the role of profit, and both necessitate expanded approaches to evaluating value and success. By intervening at the level of economic purpose, the paper offers a conceptual foundation for redesigning business as an institutional form capable of supporting human and planetary flourishing, thereby addressing the systemic harms diagnosed in Paper I.