Does the motivation matter so long as everyone ultimately benefits?
Yes it does.
Because there is no "ultimate" final state in society, Jill.
There is only the state of the moment.
So, if those who are motivated with an abject indifference to outcomes on the rest of us, sooner or later their motivation will NOT be lead to such happy outcomes.
The above is actually the problem with devising a system which harnesses greed and indifference. Its benefical coutcome can also become a poison pill
While in the short run such attitudes might lead to happy outcomes, in the long run such attitudes inevitably become toxic to the society at large.
Perfectly rational individual self interest quite often leads to tragedies of the commons.
We are now witnessing that rightnow.
Thanks to the perfectly rational, completely legal, self interested motivation of the bankers and players who brought us to this current monetary depression.
Nobody did anything illegal, nobody did anything wrong.
But their combined actions, motivated by greed, lead us to a state where the economy is, for the vast majority of us, at least, in the crapper.
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