The Morality of Self-Interest

More socially accepted, acting in a way of self-interest doesn’t give off as many pessimistic feelings in the world.  If you were to act selfish opposed to acting in a way of self-interest, you may not be acting morally in this theory.  For example, if you were to start a company, not hire any employees and work the company solely on your own, reaping all the benefits financially, you may be viewed as a selfish person.  However, if you were to start a company, hire employees and still reap the benefits financially, you may viewed as acting on your own self-interest.  It is hard to distinguish the difference between these two words, with two different meetings, which often is used synonymously in our language.  I think you need to take it a step further.  If you are solely working on your own, you are not benefiting anyone but yourself.  You would be receiving the financial benefits and not be helping anyone around you.  If you owned a company and had employees, you would be perceived as a person who employs members of the public in-turn helping them and their families financially.  Although you are still probably receiving the financial benefits, you would be passing some of these benefits on to others and still be making the same amount.

Some of these large companies and corporations in our town are owned by very wealthy individuals but they are not perceived as selfish people because of the number of people they employ.  They contribute to society and they help support many families because of the income they provide.  They may still be selfish people because they are the top of the ladder and the financial benefit they receive goes way above and beyond one of any employee, but because they spread out that financial contribution to them, they are more socially accepted.  You don’t typically hear people speak negatively about these people because of the popularity their company has and typically you have a friend or a family member working for this company.

On the other hand, recently I just purchased a truck from a gentleman in Dickinson.  I was told that he was a millionaire and he only sells autos because he is bored.  He had a terrible attitude and horrible customer service skills.  He had accidentally quoted me the price a couple thousand dollars less than the actually price he was selling the vehicle for.   Because he had quoted me the price, he kept his word.  After purchasing the vehicle, he went out of his way to call me and rub in that I got a vehicle for less than it was worth and I should be extremely grateful.  This is a selfish individual.  He has no employees and has all the money in the world that he needs, and he still felt it was necessary to point out that he took a loss on the vehicle.  I believe this theory is relative because we would be judging the act solely in comparison to another action.  Absolute morality would be whether actions can be viewed as right or wrong morally.