Category: Series: Self-Interest and Benevolence
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 12: Conclusion)
(Link to Part 11) Concluding Thoughts As we wrap up this series of reflections, what can we say about the relationship between self-interest and benevolence? The Goal of Abundance The biblical image of a just society is one of widespread abundance where humanity participates with God in co-creative stewardship over creation. Individual and Communal Stewardship…
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 11)
(Link to Part 10) Benevolence in Family and Beyond I concluded the last post by characterizing the family as a benevolence-oriented commune. There is communal property. Some laborers produce goods for trade. There is a place for those without the capacity to do economic labor and a place for caregivers. Biological bonds and those established…
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 10)
(Link to Part 9) The Practical Need for Benevolence So far, we’ve seen how important markets are to a thriving society. They provide a real-time information feedback loop that matches wants and needs with supply. Self-interested people (who may or may not be selfish) bid for goods and services. Businesses compete to be the best…
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 8)
[Link to Part 7] The Dark Side of Benevolence Critics of market economies rightly point out that markets alone will not achieve a perfectly just society. We have investigated why this is so. We do not leave people entirely at the mercy of market forces. Doing so would be an economic version of Darwin’s “survival…
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 6)
[Link to Part 5] Co-creators and Partners in Our Own Provision Over the last five posts, I've made the case that economic freedom has generated unprecedented abundance. People acting on what they believe to be in their best interests bid for goods and services, and people acting on their perceived best interest freely choose to…
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 5)
[Link to Part 4] The Indispensable Role of Government Modern market economies create an incredible abundance due to dynamic information interchange. People have the freedom to bid for goods and services based on their wants and needs, and people have the freedom to organize resources to meet the needs of others. Vast numbers of free…
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 4)
[Link to Part 3] Imperfect Markets: Too little freedom or too much? I ended my last post with this observation: “Market economies are creating unprecedented abundance, and that can be celebrated. But tremendous evil and mischief are also done by people having the freedom to act on their perceived self-interest. The dilemma is that economies…
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Self-Interest and Benevolence: Partners, not Antonyms (Part 3)
[Link to Part 2] The Miracle of the Market For the first time, societies emerge with widespread material abundance. Innovations in economic production have far outpaced the Malthusian scarcity trap. There are many reasons for this. Advances in technology, radically improved infrastructure for communication and transportation, improvement in food production and storage, investments in human…