There is a difference between profit and profiteering. Where the line, that divides the two, is drawn can be hard to measure exactly. However in recent economic times the prevalence of grave inequity makes the extremes easy enough to see.
I define profit as the difference between the value of a product and the cost of making it. On the other hand profiteering is in the difference between what something is reasonably worth (the bit that may be tricky to define exactly) and the price of it.
For instance profiteering is evident when a worker is underpaid for their labour so their employer can keep a larger share. I know many people working for less now than they were at the turn of the century despite being more skilled and experienced than they were a decade an a half ago. Skills and experience have increased the value of their work for which they are now paid less. The companies paying them less and keeping the difference are profiteers.
The other way round, drug patent buyers who acquire the rights to existing prescription drugs then vastly inflate the price are profiteers. In such a case the actual value of the product is easy to determine. A pill with a stable price of $13.00 for many years, in the absence of any shortage of raw materials or the like is pretty certainly worth $13.00. Anyone who would double the price to pocket the difference is a profiteer.
“Yay! I wanna be a profiteer.” And why would you not? A profiteer increases their capital without producing anything of value to achieve it. What could be the downside?
The downside is that, all conditions being equal, an hour of work is worth an hour of work. A pill is worth a pill. If we allow profiteers to operate as they are, the real result is that the value of your work and capital just decreases. To take more and more value out of transactions without adding any material value, while that makes a small number of individuals or corporations rich, it stagnates economies and contributes to the impoverishment of the majority of people.
If I say, “carpetbagger” you shouldn’t have a positive image come to mind. But carpetbaggers were profiteers and like profiteers of all ages caused widespread hardship. It is about time we put an end to profiteering. Otherwise we are likely to see the end of democracy, civil society and the dignity of most people’s lives.