Sustainable profitability: A team effort?

摘要

Aquiet historical coincidence happened in America's special year of 1776. The Scottish social philosopher and early economist Adam Smith (1720-1790) published "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations." In this pioneering work oneconomics, Smith identified a concept that he labeled rational self-interest.Smith perceived a correlation between an individual's economic prosperity and his moral behavior. He described how seeking self-interest within a set of moral obligations leads to prosperity. Smith's rational self-interest theory spoke to a persons desire to do the best possible in his own interest, a natural tendency and goal. What made virtue out of this seemingly egotistical and selfish vice was Smiths acknowledgement of a person's ability to confine their behavior within a set of moral obligations.For a potato grower, what might those moral obligations be, exactly?