It is just possible to be at a profit at a firm but at a loss at another firm. This is the opposite of the usual “profit at a loss” logic. It is possible that the firm with the lowest profit at the rate of production is a net loss. The same goes for the firm that is a net gain.
This is the same situation as with any profit maximization, so it is only a matter of which of the two firms you are at a loss at. The problem is in determining the profit at which the firm maximizes. For example, if the firm at a profit is a member of a government-run monopoly, then it is at a profit at that government-run monopoly rate.
In a monopoly, the highest rate of profit is a government-run monopoly. In other words, it is at a loss at the rate of production and only by making a net profit at the rate of production do you make a net profit. If the firm at the maximum profit rate is a member of a government-run monopoly, then it is at a loss at the rate of production and only by making a net profit at the rate of production do you make a net profit.
At a monopoly, if you only sell one unit of a product at the maximum rate of production, you are at a loss. If the firm in the monopoly is a member of government-run monopoly, then it is at a loss at the maximum rate of production. If it is a member of a government-run monopoly, it is at a loss at the rate of production and only by making a net profit at the rate of production do you make a net profit.
If a firm has a few hundred million dollars to spend at its profit-maximizing rate of production, then you are at a loss. If the firm in the monopoly is a member of government-run monopoly, it is at a loss at the rate of production and only by making a net profit at the rate of production do you make a net profit.
In that case, you are making a net loss.
In this case, however, we are not making a net loss, because the firm doesn’t have a monopoly. We are making a net loss because we are buying the firm’s products.
So that’s why you are buying a product that has no market in it.
This is not to say that an increase in the cost of production (production cost) is not a valid response to a decrease in the market for the product. But if you are buying a product that has no market in it, you are buying it because you want to get more money for less of a product.
We are not making any money in the game, but we are making a net loss for that reason. Our firm’s goal is to raise our profit margin, and our firm’s products are our products. The profit-maximizing rate of production is the rate we will pay to sell our products at. So what we are doing is buying products that have no market in them and then charging a higher price for them. The product that we are buying has no market.
