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From: flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: What is "capitalism"? (Explorations of "self-interest")
Message-ID: <88@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Jun-85 16:38:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.88
Posted: Sun Jun  9 16:38:12 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Jun-85 00:48:33 EDT
References: <298@spar.UUCP> <2380027@acf4.UUCP>
Reply-To: flink@maryland.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 21

In article <2380027@acf4.UUCP> mms1646@acf4.UUCP (Michael M. Sykora) writes:
>>/* baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS) /  4:28 pm  Jun  7, 1985 */
>>You weren't talking about what people *want*.  You were talking about
>>what is "best" for people.  I, for one, recognize a distinction between
>>the two in human affairs.
>
>They are not different.  X may have a set of goals, Z, that X wants to 
>achieve and a certain value X places on the achievement of each of the 
>goals in Z. X will achieve some subset of these goals.  X would like to 
>achieve that subset of goals, Y, such that the sum of the values of the 
>goals in Y is maximal over all possible subsets of Z.  Note that there may
>be certain goals in Z that cannot possibly be in the same subset.  The 
>achievement of Y is clearly what X wants, though he/she may not be aware 
>of it.  This is also what is best for X.

Not necessarily.  What I want, even the rather abstract "achievement of
Y", may not really be best for me.  What is best for me is something I
discover (not invent) through experience; and I may (and often do)
discover that my goals were mistaken.
--
Paul V. Torek, Iconbuster-In-Chief