Liberty and Happiness: Contributing to Society through Rational Self-Interest

You hear it all the time. Mostly from politicians, though preachers also parrot the phrases. The phrases are spoken so often they’ve become part of our mentality and are now no more than mere white noise. I’m talking about the phrases giving back, making a contribution, or contributing to society. These phrases are usually used with other phrases designed to make us feel guilt if we decide not to participate in whatever charity or political scheme is being promoted.

Most of the time, at least in this era, requests for contributions are geared toward the idea of self-sacrifice. It is often implied that because we have benefited from the positive things in society, we must somehow pay for those benefits by “giving back.” The idea that we can enjoy those positive things simply because we traded our time, talent and money in exchange for them, is considered, by certain individuals, to be selfish and immoral.

What these “elitist” individuals fail to realize is that contributions to society take place every day through a mechanism they despise. That mechanism is rational self-interest.

Note, please, that I am talking about rational self-interest, not the kind of self-centeredness that you find wrapped up in today’s obsession with excessive consumption. Those who live to consume are not rationally self-interested. They are slaves to their impulses and act only as their impulses dictate. They are on a constant hunt for the new. They live by the slogan “Bigger is Better.” or “Greed is good.” They eat their cake, and once eaten, they are frustrated because they no longer have it. Their lives are an endless cycle of spend, spend, spend, even when they are drowning in debt. Their reward is their self-destruction. They are irrelevant.

The “elite” who usually mouth the “give back” mantra are just as irrationally self-centered as the consumers. Their interest isn’t in improving society or in helping others, their interest is in feeding their ego and maintaining power over others. They use the idea of giving back to guilt others into doing what the elite think is “best.” Your life has no meaning to them except for what they can extract from you for their own ends whether those ends be political power or charitable causes. Both lead to your self-sacrifice for their personal ends. Not a real pleasant way for you to live your life.

The rationally self-interested, however, understand that life is a balance. It is a balance between productivity and consumption; between trade and benevolent giving. Life is not about self-centered consumption, nor is it about total self-sacrifice for the good of others. Life, specifically their own life, is their highest value.

The rationally self-intrested believe in production and trade. They produce things of value to others that they can trade for things that they value. They believe in earning their pleasures through exchanging value for value. The benefits they receive come from these exchanges. Therefore, they owe “society” nothing. They earned their benefits.

Giving becomes a voluntary act. They give because they wish to give, not because they see themselves as owing anything to anybody. They are free from the manipulative guilt of the constant promotion of self-sacrifice.

Production, trade, voluntary benevolence, these are the weapons that deliver the rationally self-interested from the manipulative hands of the politicians and preachers of modern day guilt. The productive can hold their head high and tell the consumers and elite power-mongers to take a long walk off a short pier. We already gave at the office.

Picture by flicker user Karloswayne under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by Karloswayne of the ideas in this post.

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