It can parade under other colors - wages, salaries, fees, interest, tuition, rent and so on. It can be seen in all human motivation, in every human action, said Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, holding that profit and loss are ultimately psychic phenomena. More happiness as a rule. And more is but another name for profit. Again, I think that given the primordial economic law of scarcity, of the universal urgency to allocate limited resources, including time, man must seek the most for the least, to maximize gain, to minimize loss.
Nobody is exempt.
We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. This is not to glorify profit. Like sex, the profit drive is subject to abuse. When profit overrides individual rights as in fraud or force, obviously the social fabric is torn. The mugger in Central Park, for example, is obeying his self-interest but to the detriment of his fellow man.