Making our own interests

There is no casual political discussion on the internet or in line at the grocery store that doesn’t end with the epitome of cynicism: “after all, they are just doing their own interests.” Usually, this comment is quickly surrounded by a sea of agreements nods.

However, two things frequently bother me about this comment. The first one is that it is banally true. We all do something for “our own interests.” Or at least for what we believe are our interests. Everybody does. That’s why this comment adds nothing to the discussion. Even generous and selfless people do everything for their own interests: they are just wise enough, as Socrates would say, to understand that doing good and doing justice is the best thing they can do for themselves. There is no moral implication in doing “our own interests”; it is what we do while we achieve our own interests that matter.

The second point is orthogonal and, in my opinion, more critical for the well-being of our society. When people say, “after all, they are just doing their own interests,” the underlying argument is that governments, leaders, CEO, and whatnot need to stop acting for their own interests. However, as we said before, that’s impossible. So what we should aim to, instead, is to create mechanisms so that everybody’s self-interest corresponds to the interest of society as a whole.

A typical example is the difference between democracies and dictatorships. The leaders of democracies are not inherently better than dictators. Instead, it is the different structure of power that makes all the difference. Both “presidents” and “dictators” maintain their power by appealing to their “winning coalition.”

The difference is that, while the winning coalition for dictators is a restricted group of people (e.g., military generals or economic powers), the democratic leaders’ winning coalition is composed, by the definition of democracy, of large groups of citizens. The result is that democracies, in general, need to give benefits to a bigger part of their population.

(This is obviously more complex than that and we will talk about all the nuances of democratic winning coalitions. In the meanwhile, if you want more about this topic, I suggest “The Dictator’s Handbook” by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith.)

Therefore, in the end, “they are doing their own interest” is not really a smart comment. We should ask instead: is “their own interest” good for humanity and, if not, how can we change the rules so that “their own interest” is better aligned with the interest of the most?

Now, this would truly be for“our own interest.”