Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism

Selfishness, Greed and Capitalismbeings when engaging in the market place are omniscient:they can clairvoyantly foretell everything that might happenand how likely it is to occur and when’ (Murphy 2011:37).Economists do not see a world populated by totally irrationalvoters, wholly self-serving politicians and perfectlyinformed consumers. Selfishness, ignorance, altruism andreason are fairly evenly distributed among the population.A fool in a polling booth does not become a sage in a shoppingcentre and a corrupt politician does not become Francisof Assisi when he sets up a small business. The extentto which we seek out information and behave rationallydepends on the incentives we are given and the costs ofacting foolishly. As voters, the cost of irrationality and ignoranceis practically zero. As agents in the market, thecost is much greater and we respond accordingly. ‘Assumingthat all people are fully rational all the time is bad economics,’writes Caplan (2007: 135). ‘It makes more sense toassume that people tailor their degree of rationality to thecosts of error.’Free-market economists do not assume that individualsalways know what is best for them, but they do assumethat individuals are better placed to know their own preferencesthan a distant bureaucrat. So long as we bear theconsequences of our actions, the path of progress is bettertrod by sovereign beings pursuing their goals through voluntarycooperation than by a technocratic elite proddingus all in the same direction.36