“Bah! Humbug”, was Scrooge’s opinion of charitable giving and even today some economists reckon charity goes against economic rationality. 36. It is often alleged that altruism is inconsistent with economic rationality, which assumes that people behave selfishly. Certainly, much economic analysis is concerned with how individuals behave, and homo economicus (economic man) is usually assumed to act in his or her self-interest.
37. Some economic models assume that self-interested individuals behave altruistically because they get some benefit, or utility, from doing so. For instance, it may make them feel better about themselves, or be a useful insurance policy against social unrest. Other economic models relax the traditional assumption of fully rational behavior by simply assuming that people sometimes behave altruistically, even if this may be against their self-interest. The Peace Corps is an example, for people often give up potentially lucrative starts to their careers or interrupt them to do good work overseas. People who work for the Peace Corps do so because they want to and to keep the Peace Corps dynamic with fresh ideas. 38. Sociologists would argue that there is a natural inclination of human beings to engage themselves in helping others, as a natural instinct to preserve the species. Thus public duty is a survival act.
The question then is raised regarding political participation, whether it can be classified as an act of economic rationality or of altruism. 39. Public duty may not necessarily mean duty, although it may include that constant and active practical participation in the details of politics without which, upon the part of the most intelligent citizens, the conduct of public affairs falls under the control of selfish and ignorant or crafty and venal men. Politics often requires service in committees, care and trouble and expense of many kinds, patient endurance of rebuffs, chagrins, ridicules, disappointments, and defeats. 40. All these duties and services, when selfishly and meanly performed, stigmatize a man as a mere politician, but when performed with honesty and vigilance, they become gradual building blocks, stone by stone and layer by layer, of a nation of self-restrained liberty.
