I was pondering about a piece of wisdom people often say, roughly going like "Oh yes, invest in stocks, the market always goes up!" and even though technically true they forget to mention that it's the case because losers get kicked out. A company that doesn't performed is removed from the indices so sure, market goes up BECAUSE losers leave.
This isn't a moral stance by the way, just highlighting mechanisms to participate, and survive, in those environments.
First, for-profit vs non-profit. This is a great point. I have only worked for huge for-profits orgs my whole career. On the other hand, my mother worked as a first grade teacher (teaching children to read) for 35 years. The difference in our view of the workplace is night and day: She views it as much more benevolent because other teachers are your peers and are genuinely friendly and helpful. My more grizzled view is like the jungles during Viet Nam War: Live to fight another day.
Second: Again, another good point. When most people say "the market", they usually mean one or two big indices, like Dow Jones Industrial Average, or NASDAQ 100, or S&P 500. You are right: As a result of their (mostly) rules based system to periodically re-balance the index, losers fall out and winners arrive.