"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages" - Adam Smith
What the Socialists don't realise is that even the most intelligent person is ignorant to 99.99% of human knowledge. Everything we take for granted in our day to day lives, all the innovation, was done by someone better than you. Someone that pushed the boundaries through self-interest. Those individual pursuits of personal gain can lead to the provision of goods and services that benefit the community without any explicit intention to do so.
A free market that allows for the distributed decision making, motivated by self interest, is what allows society to flourish. The stifling of individualism via some misplaced empathetic notion of altruism, where individual rights and freedoms must be sacrificed for 'the greater good', has, and always will, lead to the degradation of society.
Individualism > Collectivism
Self interest > Altruism
Free market > Central planning
Celebrate the innovators. Celebrate the success of others, who drive in the pursuit of upgrading their own lives, for they are inadvertently upgrading yours.
