One of the primary contrasts between liberals and conservatives is whether or not self-interest is a virtue.

That is, is acting selfishly and egotistically something to be praised ? Acting in your own self-interest is something that we all should do, but not at the expense of harming others. Temperance and moderation are important; we should not always act selfishly and we should not always act altruistically.

The intersection of the two is a virtue I like to call social awareness. Nearly every moral and ethical theory has argued against acting selfishly. The two main moral theories are: Deontology from Immanuel Kant and Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill. Immanuel Kant developed the Golden Rule: “treat others as you wish to be treated.” John Stuart Mill argued that we should promote societal happiness, saying that the most ethical action was the one that created the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. Even Adam Smith thought that businessmen would take advantage of others and advocated for government to enforce consumer protections.

Rational self-interest as an ethical virtue first came around with Ayn Rand’s objectivism. It is a poorly thought out theory that basically justifies being an arrogant brat.

Acting in one’s self-interest is very important, but always acting that way ignores the complexity of human nature.

Thomas Jefferson argued that it was immoral because our entire society is based on our relations with others; to ignore those is to ignore what our social contract is based upon. The reality of the situation is that ethical egoism leads to nothing better than ethnocentrism: where you are the privileged group and everyone else is in the “minority”.

Yet if everyone is treating themselves as the majority and everyone else as the minority, there is no way to resolve interests. Given our tendency to choose short-term gratification over long-term benefits, society would quickly devolve into anarchy.

Of course most conservatives wouldn’t take such an extreme position; the Bible does advocate for social charity. They just argue it is the best way to make economic decisions. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that it isn’t. In a perfect free market system, there would be no profits for any business owners.

This system is always best for consumers and society because it allows for the lowest prices and the most efficient allocation of resources. Yet business owners acting in their own self-interest distort the market with various unethical practices. They act in their own self-interest, but end up raising prices and destroying the free market.

Ethical egoism leads to the destruction of the free market, a very interesting contradiction in the conservative paradigm. However, other seemingly beneficial and egotistical economic decisions end up hurting the businesses as well.

The decision to lay off workers to cut costs ends up hurting morale and productivity to the point where the decrease in revenues offsets the reduction in costs.

Businesses that decide to reduce their investments because of an irrational fear of a recession may end up causing the actual recession. In short, ethical egoism not only ends up hurting society, but also hurting the ethical egoist.Acting completely altruistically can be bad too; one must take care of oneself and one’s family.

Acting selfishly is a great way  to ensure that we meet the basic essentials of survival. However, past that, we do live in a society. Ensuring the benefit of others in our society ends up benefiting ourselves as well. Indeed, many people act altruistically because they know it will help them out. The truth of the matter is that we are social creatures.

Treating self-interest as a virtue undermines the benefits that we all get from society. All of humanity’s greatest achievements required teams of people working together for a common and greater good.

We should prize that societal cohesion above ethical egoism. Social awareness is a virtue to be praised; the extreme expressions of it that are altruism and egoism should be shunned and moderation is necessary. Self-interest is a vice, not a virtue.