Quotes About Self-interest

as self-interest can be the driver of growth.

Talvez a ideia por trás do capitalismo seja um efeito iatrogênico inverso, as consequências involuntárias-mas-não-tão-involuntárias: o sistema facilita a conversão de objetivos egoístas (ou, para ser correto, não necessariamente benevolentes) no nível individual para resultados benéficos ao coletivo.

the notion of incentives as limited to financial gain cannot otherwise explain the very existence of an economics academia that promotes the idea of self-interest.

Every other form is self-serving.*4

The real Revolution was so troubling and strange that once the struggle was over, a generation did its best to remove all traces of the truth. No one wanted to remember how after boldly declaring their independence they had so quickly lost their way; how patriotic zeal had lapsed into cynicism and self-interest; and how, just when all seemed lost, a traitor had saved them from themselves.

Human nature is both predictable and mysterious; prone to great and sudden advances, yet still mired in despicable self-interest.

In those days before the Thunderhead, human arrogance, self-interest, and endless in-fighting determined the rule of law. Inefficient. Imperfect. Vulnerable to all forms of corruption.

A dearth of fiduciaries willing to place client interests foremost forces individuals to take responsibility for their investment portfolios. In the profit-motivated world of Wall Street, fiduciary responsibility takes a backseat to self-interest. What benefits the stockbroker (commissions), the mutual fund manager (large pools of assets), and the financial advisor (high fees) injures the investor. When profit motive meets fiduciary responsibility, profits win and investors lose. Understand

We are, after all, homo economicus .

The iron law of bureaucracy dictates that most of the people in any large organization will, after a time, be more preoccupied with preserving their own jobs than with fulfilling the mission statement of the agency.

Businessmen should not put their finger in politics, because they tend to think only of their own self-interest. But I worry about the low morale in Italian industry and the lack of government initiatives to help the poor.

Los incentivos son relevantes porque la mayoría de las personas tienden a hacer más por su beneficio que por el beneficio de otros. Los incentivos hacen que ambas consideraciones coincidan. Una camarera nos sirve comida no porque tengamos hambre, sino porque su salario y propinas dependen de ello. Ante la ausencia de estos incentivos, el servicio en los restaurantes de la Unión Soviética era notoriamente malo.

if one follows one's self-interest one wants to be safe, whereas the path of justice and honour involves one in danger.

Every good relationship we have is a gift of God's grace. Left to ourselves, nothing good would happen. Our problem has everything to do with sin and our potential has everything to do with Christ. Sin always draws towards self-interest. It is possible that even in our most altruistic moments are driven by what we get out of them

if the market system had not arisen naturally, it would have been proclaimed the greatest invention in human history. For market competition leads a self-interested person to wake up in the morning, look outside at the earth and produce from its raw materials, not what he wants, but what others want. Not in the quantities he prefers, but in the quantities his neighbors prefer. Not at the price he dreams of charging, but at a price reflecting how much his neighbors value what he has done.

But if Marx errs, his error does not lie, as his critics often allege, in underestimating "innate human selfishness." Instead, his error—and, again, it is the common error today—lies in the other direction, in underestimating the capacity of subjects to act against their self-interest.

Psychoanalysis, however, calls into question the idea that we primarily act on behalf of our own interest. It allows us to see another power operating beneath the apparent predominance of self-interest. Of course, the commonsensical understanding of psychoanalysis is exactly the opposite of this, contending that psychoanalysis reduces everything to self-interest.

Of all selfish bastards, a selfish bastard who likes to be liked is probably the worst. Never

be a certain percentage of citizens who will try to strip-mine and suck dry everything they can

Silvio Berlusconi, who entered politics not so much to further the national house-cleaning as to ensure that his own business dealings remained safely unaffected.

In an age when young people are encouraged to maximize self-interest and self-advancement, the grounds for altruism or even good behavior become obscured. Short of reverting to religious authority—itself on occasion corrosive of secular institutions—what can furnish a younger generation with a sense of purpose beyond its own short-term advantage?

Under what conditions will cooperation emerge in a world of egoists without central authority?

It was sad to see the peasants' ingratitude. And their superstitions. And their stubbornness. And so on, and so on...a dust-covered and uninteresting skein of self-interest, low-grade passion, boredom, greedy impotence, and poverty.

Not only is the universal pursuit of self-interest the Reality, it is also the Ideal — if life is an eternal democracy.