Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu warns against a world driven entirely by profit

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has raised questions about whether every part of human life should be driven by profit, arguing that modern economic thinking risks creating a “dystopian world” when activities such as farming, teaching and healthcare are viewed mainly through a commercial lens. In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Sridhar Vembu asked whether society wants its farmers, teachers, doctors and priests to become profit-driven. “Do we want our farmers, teachers, doctors and priests to be profit-driven?,” he wrote. Vembu argued that modern finance and economic theory encourages almost all human activity to focus on profit, while overlooking the deeper social, cultural and spiritual foundations on which markets themselves depend.“Modern finance and economic theory encourages essentially all human activity to be profit-driven.