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48 I THE PHiLosopHY oF Eco-Porrrics enough. Ihe concept of optimal measure, writes Daly, is not unknown in corporate economics. If a company has a size beyond which further growth would be uneconomical in the given circumstances, why not introduce the concept of optimal size as regards national or world economy as well??? If we can shake off the fixation that the development of society depends on the increased traffic of goods, then there is no barrier to concluding from the indicators of real prosperity to the state of society and to evaluating the national economy according to whether its performance increases the improvement of these indicators. (‘These indicators can be quite variable. The data most often considered is connected to the population’s education and health, the quality of the environment, social security and equity.) ‘The other sacred cow of the ruling economic school of thought is the theory of rational decisions. This holds that if the economic actors possess the requisite information (which of course is contained in the prices), then they will most likely favour the solution most cost-effective for them. This benefits not only them in the short and long run, for the selfishness (profit-maximalising behaviour) of the mutually competing individuals is also the most suitable means for keeping the national economy in balance. Garret Hardin’s model known as the tragedy of the commons thoroughly disproves this theory. It proves that choosing the solution that brings them the most short-term profit can actually be reasonable for competing individuals under certain circumstances, since foresight and self-control would merely give their competitors the advantage. If, however, every individual were to behave in this way separately (i.e., make decisions that are rational from their own point of view), then the foreseeable yet unavoidable result is a common catastrophe: the destruction of the indispensable public goods. ‘The opinion that the driving force behind economic development is individual selfishness is as old as the competitive market economy itself. Bernard Mandeville was the first to say, in The Fable of the Bees at the beginning of the eighteenth century, that general economic growth is best served by concupiscence, envy, miserliness and greed, giving these qualities a positive ethical value.*! Even if one sets ethical reservations 9 Herman Daly — John B. Cobb: For the Common Good. Beacon Press, Boston 1989. 21 And temp'rance with sobriety, Serve drunkenness and gluttony. The root of evil, avarice, That damnd ill-natur’d baneful vice, Was slave to prodigality, That noble sin; whilst luxury
