Perhaps the most common moral objection to market systems is the one that asserts they are based on universal selfishness. Is that true? . . .
Economic theory assumes self-interested behavior. Self-interested behavior is selfish behavior only if one’s interests are selfish. We could avoid confusion on this score by saying that economic theory assumes people act to further the projects that interest them. Whether those projects are entirely or primarily selfish depends on what kind of people they are. We should probably be slow to judge. What do we really know about other people’s motives? . . .
The moral critics of capitalism . . . might reply, ‘people are motivated primarily by money.’ And that is certainly true. But what does it mean? Suppose you are a teacher who has been asked to sponsor the debate club. You don’t really want to do it, but you agree when you are offered an extra $200 a month in salary. Were you motivated in this case by the money? It would seem so. But what does it tell us? It does not tell us you are interested only or primarily in money, because money is always a means to some other end. Suppose Ms. Demosthenes wants the money in order to increase her contributions to the local children’s hospital, and she will be giving up her regular bowling nights in order to find the time. Mr. Cicero will use the extra money to ACCEPT himself a new set of golf clubs and will find the time by preparing less carefully for his classes. Both Ms. Demosthenes and Mr. Cicero did it for the money, but what a world of moral difference we find in why and how they really did it.
Paul Heyne, The Senior Economist, April 1995, p.3.