The Concept Of Self Interest

The concept of self interest has always interested me.
This interest has been increased by the recent discussions in parliament and by our forummer Cruxx mentioning it several times.

Let's take the hypothetical example of a government official. For simplicity, let's call him Z.
For some obscure reason, Z was identified as a talent and recruited to stand for election and become a top government official.
For reasons known only to him, Z's boss decided not to give him any significant portfolio or projects to manage.
Z said to himself "Hehehe. Since that's the case, I'll just collect as much salary as possible and feel rich. I'll be nice to my boss always, talk in a convoluted manner using atrocious english and diction, occasionally state the obvious and make motherhood statetments, once in a while, I'll sing or dress like a clown to make those idiotic constituents laugh."

This continued for years and Z happily collected his salary, until one day, he was defeated in an election.
A quick desperate poll revealed that his constituents were not happy with him for not doing enough for them.

So what he did, did he do it for self interest or in his best interests?
Or was it more for selfish interest, which eventually didn't prove to be in his self interest?
This hypothetical official obviously did not have the brains or foresight to realise that his best interests or self interest would have been better served, by going around helping out his needy constituents, even if he did not have any portfolios or projects to manage.

Z thought that he was serving his best interests by doing what he did...which was basically fuckall. So he lost the ensuing election.
Had he been more forward thinking he would have done just a little more but enough to get re-elected.... thereby secretly but fully serving and furthering his self interest.

Makes sense?

jw5 said:

The concept of self interest has always interested me.
This interest has been increased by the recent discussions in parliament and by our forummer Cruxx mentioning it several times.

Let's say the hypothetical example of a government official. For simplicity, let's call him Z.
For some obscure reason, Z was identified as a talent and recruited to stand for election and become a top government official.
For reasons known only to him, Z's boss decided not to give him any significant portfolio or projects to manage.
Z said to himself "Hehehe. Since that's the case, I'll just collect as much salary as possible and feel rich. I'll be nice to my boss always, talk in a convoluted manner using atrocious english and diction, occasionally state the obvious and make motherhood statetments, once in a while, I'll sing or dress like a clown to make those idiotic constituents laugh." This continued for years and Z happily collected his salary, until one day, he was defeated in an election.
A quick desperate poll revealed that his constituents were not happy with him for not doing enough for them.

So what he did, did he do it for self interest or in his best interests?
Or was it more for selfish interest, which eventually didn't prove to be in his self interest?
This hypothetical official obviously did not have the brains or foresight to realise that his best interests or self interest would have been better served, by going around helping out his needy constituents, even if he did not have any portfolios or projects to manage.

Click to expand...

Market failure, in other words. Or prisoner's dillemma.

Z should learn from Kuan Yew. Take $5, give $3 back. Contribute a little, take credit for everything.

erection2011 said:

Z thought that he was serving his best interests by doing what he did...which was basically fuckall. So he lost the ensuing election.
Had he been more forward thinking he would have done just a little more but enough to get re-elected.... thereby secretly but fully serving and furthering his self interest.

Makes sense?

Click to expand...

Exactly bro. There's a difference between SELF interest and SELFISH interest.
Everybody does things in his best interests, he thinks his actions will make things better or make him happier.
Nobody does something that he thinks will make things worse or made him sadder.

Of course they may be insane or lack information or the "intelligence or wisdom" to make the "right" decision.
That includes people who give to charity because this makes them feel good or sadly, even people who attempt suicide, thinking that this will relieve their pain and suffering. They don't realise that this may increase the pain and suffering of their loved ones.

Cruxx said:

Z should learn from Kuan Yew. Take $5, give $3 back. Contribute a little, take credit for everything.

Click to expand...

Now THAT guy is the master.
He did it so well that everybody save a few regard him as a world class statesman.
To be fair, he probably believed that almost everything he did was for a "greater good".
That included believing that his family members, by blood or marriage, were the country's "top talents".

Many sycophants and lapdogs fell by the wayside or did not receive national or international acclaim, because they mistook self interests for selfish interests and it showed.