[consulting] Returning to a solution

[Sami Khan]

On Mon, 2009-08-10 at 14:02 -0700, Domenic Santangelo wrote:
> Sami Khan wrote:
> > If it is true that your statement is true, then the United
> > States is pretty much screwed as there is no way that the government or
> > anyone else can support that many greedy people.
> >    
> Smith's Invisible Hand concept addresses this point: it is because the 
> self-interest of the seller and the self-interest of the buyer intersect 
> that a market exists. Of course more generally, Smith posited that this 
> self-interest unintentionally benefits society as a whole ("an actor is 
> led by an Invisible Hand to promote an end which was no part of his 
> intention").

Yes, but Smith did not think about game theory and zero sum games which
is what we are talking about with the categorical imperative. Everyone
acting in their self-interest does not mean the best outcome. Read the
prisoner's dilemma on wikipedia.

Sami

> 
> I can anecdotally relate to this point -- do we not encourage our 
> clients to contribute work back to the community ("society", as it were)?
> 
> -D
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