February 13, 2006
Selfishness Has Its Value to the Economy
By Peter
Brown
Self-interest
gets a bad rap these days.
It is both
the driving principle of capitalism and a fact of human nature.
And, it
explains so much about many Americans' ambivalence toward Wal-Mart.
A survey
of attitudes toward the nation's largest retailer among New Yorkers,
who might be expected to be among the least supportive of the
firm and its practices, explains much about that love/hate relationship.
They don't
like the company and wish it were operated differently.
But in a
New York minute they are on their way to shop there.
Now, remember
New York City is not just in the bluest of states; it is among
the few remaining U.S. hotbeds of unions - who see the retailer
as their sworn enemy.
New York
has become the final domestic frontier for a company with more
stores in Milan, Tenn., population 7,000, than New York City.
Consider
that Wal-Mart is further along in penetrating China than the Big
Apple, or for that matter the entire Empire State. Wal-Mart has
11 stores in Shenzhen, a city of 7 million people located across
the border from Hong Kong. In all there are 56 Wal-Marts in China
compared to the 45 in New York State.
Wal-Mart,
which has no stores in New York City but wants a piece of the
action, is meeting resistance from the coalition of labor, civil
rights and community groups that have declared it to be their
corporate enemy No. 1.
In Manhattan,
N.Y. those groups carry more political clout than in Manhattan,
Kansas.
Yet, the
Quinnipiac University survey of New York City residents last month
found that even though most don't particularly like its non-union
practices and global supply chain, that won't stop them from spending
money there.
Only 51
percent wanted Wal-Mart to open stores in New York City, and 57
percent said the company doesn't pay its workers enough. Yet,
65 percent - 63 percent of union households -- said they would
shop there if they could.
Some might
say these numbers epitomize the view of New Yorkers as crassly
selfish, but that would be as unfair as it is judgmental. The
phenomenal success of the company in the rest of America shows
New Yorkers are no different than North Carolinians or North Dakotans.
It is fashionable
to decry selfishness as responsible for every societal ill. But
without the natural motivation for personal gain our economic
system might fall down around us, or at the least produce much
less prosperity for all.
This constant
effort by everyone to get the best deal they can creates the productivity
that fuels the economy. And that explains why people can both
dislike Wal-Mart yet shop there.
Remember,
those societies that have sought to ban such normal human impulses
have been the worse for it. Just ask the billions of Russians,
Chinese and Indians who have only relatively recently forsaken
various forms of socialism, which sees self-interest as evil.
The notion
that self-interest has its virtues may seem like common sense,
but it not a universal given.
About 15
years ago, shortly after the Soviet Union's breakup, my family
hosted a congenial and bright teacher from Russia as part of an
exchange program. He was from a rural area where apples, for instance,
were easily obtainable at reasonable costs, although jobs and
currency were scarce.
My then
10-year-old son asked why this man did not take those apples,
board a train for Moscow, where they were in short supply, and
sell them there to make money. No, that would be wrong, the Russian
said, because that would be taking advantage of market conditions.
My son,
who now works for a major U.S. multinational company, even then
realized this nice Russian was from another planet when it came
to understanding how economics works.
One does
not have to agree with the fictional Gordon Gekko in Hollywood's
Wall Street that "greed is good" to understand
being selfish isn't always a bad thing.
That's why
people can dislike Wal-Mart in the abstract, yet be more than
happy to buy all their stuff.
Peter
A. Brown is assistant director of the Quinnipiac University
Polling Institute. He can be reached at peter.brown@quinnipiac.edu
