If the Big Money luxury housing developers, who are loathe to include adequate affordable housing in their developments, defended their deeds by saying--as people once did--"It was the Devil made me do it," we'd tell them to go to hell. Well, nowadays their excuse is, "It was the profit made me do it." Why should we accept that lame excuse any more than the earlier one?
Unfortunately, the "Profit made me do it" excuse is given a pass these days. Why? Because our whole society is based on the idea that making a profit to get as rich as possible is the most noble thing one can do, and if it leaves others in the lurch, "So what?". To reject the "Profit made me do it" excuse means to reject the basis of our current social system, and most people find this a difficult thing to do.
What makes it difficult is two things.
First, if you think that hardly anybody else agrees with you that "Profit made me do it" is not a good excuse or a moral basis for society, then it's hard to go against the crowd by saying otherwise.
Second, if you're not sure that there is a truly better, more desirable, and practical alternative to the "Profit made me do it" basis of society, and especially if the most famous alternative--Communism--was (is) clearly horribly anti-democratic and often ugly, then that too makes it hard to stand up and declare that "Profit made me do it" is not a legitimate excuse for anything.
My website, PDRBoston.org , is all about:
1) Far from being a small minority in wanting a NO RICH AND NO POOR society that rejects "Profit made me do it," we are actually the vast majority; and
2) Egalitarianism (the way to have NO RICH AND NO POOR) is a truly desirable (genuinely democratic--the opposite of Communism) basis for society that is practical and sensible--a "no brainer" once one knows about it.
A good place to start reading more about egalitarian revolution--which means making society be egalitarian by removing the rich from power--is https://www.pdrboston.org/what-is-an-egalitarian-revolution .
Only by rejecting the "Profit made me do it" excuse, that gets thrown in our face over and over again, can we stop Big Money from treating us like dirt.
In the short run, ONLY a growing movement that confidently rejects the "Profit made me do it" excuse and aims to make society egalitarian will frighten the rich and powerful enough to make them fear what might happen (losing power one day) if they don't grant some of the demands we are making for things such as adequate affordable housing.
In the long run, only removing the rich from power to have real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor (i.e., egalitarian revolution) will make it possible to have a truly good and desirable society for all.