Virtue Is Profitable
May 20, 2016
IN A continuing discussion at The Orthosphere, Kristor argues that, contrary to popular economic theory, economies prosper most over the long run not when profit is the goal, but when the good is:
An economy prospers most, not when it seeks to maximize accounting profit (because that’s focusing on the wrong metric), but when its agents reliably seek the true good. And the good is just what a devout Christian is apt to do, by his best lights. As an extra bonus, and as might have been expected in a cosmos built by a good God, doing the true good generally results in the highest overall accounting profit, mutatis mutandis – and, ergo, in the highest tax base for the sovereign. Everyone benefits most when everyone is trying to do the right thing. This is not just an aphorism, but a truth of game theory. It is mathematically true; it is built into the fabric of this and all possible worlds.