>> And so on... take any 100 businesses and analyze their priorities.
>> You'll probably find much more than "making profit", and while
>> everybody likes a nice profit, there always will be decisions that put
>> profit maximization behind something else -- which, by your definition,
>> would make them... what exactly? they're not non-profits, but they're
>> not businesses in your sense either.
>
> Unless you provide concrete examples, I don't think we'll get anywhere.
> Behind what, exactly?

The sort of example I think of here is the "tied cottage" that is part of 
working on many UK estates. Once an employee retires they may well be 
allowed to live out the rest of their life - and possibly that of their 
spouse - in the cottage that came with the job, in recognition of their 
contribution to the estate. The estate would be perfectly entitled to send 
them on their way, and put a new employee who is taking over the position, 
into the cottage.

Keeping the retired employee in the cottage is a cost to the estate, in 
terms of maintenance - and may end up with additional costs such as keeping 
the garden tidy as the ex-employee ages and can no longer do so, apart from 
the cost of finding a new cottage for the replacement employee. 

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