@common & Milton Friedman – There is no stira between Friedman and me. We are both saying that business creates value in the process of doing business.
Note that Milton Friedman is often somewhat dogmatic and simplistic in his heroic defense of the free enterprise from the socialist plague. One striking example, he praises Hong Kong v. Israel, saying similar sized countries and see how better Hong Kong done w/ pure capitalism … With more time passed, we see that Hong Kong was gobbled by PRC and Israel produced some free enterprise …
So, I would update Friedman with a permission to appreciate mitzvos achieved by business, not just rely on a theorem that business is good, thus I can just pursue whateer I want. When you select a direction for your business, you can select something that benefits Jews/humanity – food, books, medicine, defense, building/creation of new things, rather than buying/selling stocks that would also indirectly be useful, of course.
Also, if you are blessed not to have shareholders, then you are even more free to choose direction for your business.
Yerishalmi Shekalim ~ 13 similarly describes companies who would business with Beis Hamikdash without much profit – either to benefit from name recognition of their pasrtner or to combine business with tzedokah