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… is from page 29 of the 2006 Liberty Fund edition of Ludwig von Mises’s 1956 volume, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality [2] (available free-of-charge on-line here [3]):
Capitalism provides many with the opportunity to display initiative. While the rigidity of a status society enjoins on everybody the unvarying performance of routine and does not tolerate any deviation from traditional patterns of conduct, capitalism encourages the innovator. Profit is the prize of successful deviation from customary types of procedure; loss is the penalty of those who sluggishly cling to obsolete methods. The individual is free to show what he can do in a better way than other people.
DBx: Indeed.
Loss, though, in market economies can be suffered also by those who do try new uses of resources. More specifically, in market economies loss also arises from using resources in ways the final results of which are worth less than would be the final results of using those same resources in at least one different and better way (where “better” is determined by the voluntary and unobstructed spending by people of their own money).