It's a pretty arbitrary term, selfishness; it's difficult to characterize someone as selfish or not with absolute certainty because it's a loaded word. When I say that people are inherently selfish, I include myself, as well as some of the most generous people I know. Here is my reasoning: when we make decisions in our lives, no matter how big the scale, a large majority of the time we're looking for the choice that most benefits ourselves. This seems to be a rational assertion.
At this point, many of you might be thinking, "I do things that aren't the most benefitial for me because I put others before myself, and will do things to help them even if they impose consequences or costs on me." I wouldn't dispute this at all. I know many people who feel this way and I, too, have said this to myself before. However, whether we like it or not, we're still selfish. Just because something isn't the most benefitial doesn't mean there isn't any benefit at all.
In relation to what I said earlier, everyone is an economist to a certain degree- we all do a cost-benefit analysis when making decisions. A rational decision-maker will only take action when the benefits exceed the costs. Based on this, we can see that there is a point where the benefits of a given action equal the costs and we will not take any action beyond that, when the costs are greater than the benefits. This seems like a bunch of economics jargon, but what I'm trying to say is that "generous" people will help others in need, as long as the benefits exceed the costs. There's still a benefit to acting and I believe that's selfish, because once the costs grow larger than the benefits, no one acts.
To put this into context, let's look at an example of charity- take Hurricane Katrina for example. Donating $10, or even $100, to the relief fund to help the victims survive and assist in the rebuilding of the city is really a wonderful thing to do. No arguments there. They need money and you are providing some to help those in need. However, the decision to donate money is somewhat selfish, not a bad thing to do, but selfish. This is why: the cost (to you, the patron) of donating money to the fund is the dollar amount you donate. However, the benefits are far greater: you get self satisfaction from your good deed (makes you feel good about yourself) and you can also tell other people what you did, and they will most likely pat you on the back for giving to charity. Telling people of your good deeds is selfish because you're probably looking for recognition, and the need to be recognized for your efforts is selfish.
When an action's costs surpass its benefits, we don't act. If we truly cared about assisting those affected by the disaster in New Orleans, we would go to Lousiana and physically help out. Make sense? Well we can't possibly go there because we have school, or jobs, or families to care for. Sound about right? Or why don't we donate all the money we have because we care so much about providing assistance. We're not going to go because costs outweigh benefits. Selfish. How about when a friend needs a ride somewhere? The benefit is that they owe you a favor in the future and the cost depends on where they need to go. Would you drive your friend to the store? Yea. How about the airport? Sure. How about cross state? Why? Cross country? Huh? Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but do see where I'm getting at? You have to draw the line somewhere, and that's going to be the point at which you assess the benefits no longer exceeding the costs. We will do things that are inconvenient for us, just as long as they aren't too inconvenient.
I want to qualify all of this by saying a few things: I think it's important to better understand the word "selfish" and how we use it. Just because people are inherently selfish doesn't mean they're bad by any means. Donating money to charity is a fantastic thing to do and I applaud anyone who participates in it. Furthermore, I have so much respect for people who physically help those in need by volunteering their time and efforts (my brother helped build a house in Juarez, Mexico and I admire him so much for doing that). Friends don't always help each other out in exchange for future favors, but don't take advantage of people who are generous because that's just wrong- have their back if they have yours.
The point of this blog post was to simply point out something that I've talked about with people before, and observed about the human condition. It's written from an economic standpoint (if you haven't already figured that out), so certain assumptions have to hold true and I've taken what I believe to be a pretty logical approach in supporting my argument. Please try to understand the underlying principles of what I'm saying- take from it what you will.
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