Golden Rule (motivation is to better others rather than benefit yourself)
*Do it to others, and then others will do it to you.
It’s good for society if it’s possible and it works in certain conditions: when the economic condition is simple and small and you know the people around. But the real society is big and impersonal (you have to deal with person you don’t know).
*In commercial society, what really happens is: I’ll do something for you, if and only if you do something for me. We use others in the transaction as means to our own ends. (Where the “immoral” sense come from)
*It doesn’t work even work when everybody in the world is perfectly altruistic.
What makes the golden rule fail?
People are not used to make other people as their ends.
Knowledge problem
Trade + competitive advantage
i. Self-interest (in society, we actually celebrate it: eat healthier food, got better education, stop smoking.
ii. Reciprocal Altruism
Toney: Tony needs a kidney; he gets one anonymously (from Tim)
10yrs, Tina struggles with her mortgage
There’s nothing different if it happened out of golden rule (10 years later Tony pay the mortgage for Tina) or self-interest (sell and purchase). We just shrink the distance and time.
*Market transaction is nothing but reciprocal altruism happening instantaneously.
iii. Only buying and selling firms are viewed as greedy and self-interested. Firms are really greedy when they charge price, try to sell product to you.
1) When consumers make choice, they are also greedy.
2) Don’t people who sell their labor for high price greedy?
*What is it activates human behavior and how does it help us to get American cheese at the corner? It’s not selfishness that motivates people in a commercial society: some people just do for love or like, avoiding bored, satisfaction.
*self-interest to economists: that you pursue the projects that interest you. That’s true both for mother Teresa and jack the trapper. Adam Smith mentioned self-law, not self-interest.
*Golden rule is really hard for us to get a mortgage or cheese.
Eg. Should bus driver wait for Rizzo?
Let’s thinking about the difficulties for the bus driver when he decide whether to let Rizzo in:
i. If he wait for Rizzo, there’s gonna be some delay. Suppose there’re 45 passengers on the bus, you delay each of them for 1 minute, then it’s 45 minute. May be some people miss something important. The point is the bus driver can’t know. Even if you can know, it’s to cost to do so.
ii. Rule of law. Following the rule of the bus company, the driver try to maximize the profit of everybody is he doesn’t have enough information. The driver who waits is actually not so virtuous, since he violates the rule of law. It’s impossible for the drivers in a society all arbitrarily decide where and when to stop.
*What is moral-appropriate rule?
We can’t assume Golden Rule because of Knowledge Problem.
Silver Rule: Do not do to others what you would consider unfair or unjust if they did it to you.
Soft vs. Hard Principles
Eg. What the responsibility of businesses and corporation should bear in a society? People always say: shouldn’t businesses operate with a little bit more responsibility or love? I think there’s no conflict between profit and social responsibility. Should business give portion of their profit to charity? Possible response:
i. It’s perfectly ok to be charitable with your own money. (This is moral). It’s totally inappropriate to be charitable with someone else’s money. Most Corporations are NOT privately hold. No country get rich because of charity.
ii. There’s no such thing as enough profit. The world is incredibly uncertain. If you sacrifice in the name of responsibility, you may destroy the company entirely, and put everyone out of work.
iii. Running a successful business requires using selfless-values. It is best for the people who run the business. Eg. Apple is famous for customer service. Those companies who treat employees and customers badly will find it extremely hard to thrive.
iv. A charity doesn’t love me like my brothers love me. (Personal decision)
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