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SECRET_GUILT

                                   April 29, 2001

The virtue of the profit motive is that it harnesses the
energies of the huge fraction of humanity that is totally
clueless about what to do with their existance.  People who
otherwise would be a complete waste can still get involved
with seeing who can buy the most stuff.  Almost as an
accidental by-product, the condition of humanity is improved
by their efforts, however silly they may seem... and I have
to say it strikes me as being *really* silly.  Anyone living
in the United States can just get a job in a McDonald's and
live at a standard far higher than most of the rest of the
planet.

The real key to happiness involves finding something
better to do with your life than growing a gasoline
gut, and if the glories of access to more art,
literature and music than has ever been available in
history are somehow lost on you, well, there's always
competitive shopping.

For me this has always been something of a paradox:
I really do believe in the profit motive, but I find
that I myself am only barely motivated by profit.

I used to think that this might be an unusual condition
among libertarians-- who at least these days often seem
like more culturally conservative folks-- but I wonder
if it might be a more widespread condition, a kind of
secret guilt.  Why can't I be a money-grubbing swine,
like the rest of the kids?  Isn't it hypocritcal to
preach against altruism and get involved with quixotic
projects like trying to convince people to respect each
other's freedom?

So I am here to say that
You're Okay.  You're not alone.

Moreover, maybe we need more people like you.

Contra-Rand, I don't think it's very
accurate or useful to talk about the            Greed isn't good,
"virtue of selfishness".                        just better than
                                                nothing.
Greed is an inevitability, and standing
in the way of the inevitable is usually
a bad idea, but it doesn't follow that
it's a good idea to encourage it by
raising it to the level of a virtue.

You have a right to wave the
flag of self-interest, but
you also have the right to      (And you have the right
lower it as you choose.         to define "self" and
                                "interest" in many
                                different ways.)




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