Does Materialism Crowd Out Moral and Intrinsic Motives?
I always thought materialism was the butt of criticisms by moralizers, Adam continued, not hedonists. But I should remind you that moral economics in its incarnation as Christian economics did not rescue the developing countries of Europe from their poverty and, well, their backwardness in the Middle Ages. OK, said Dessie, will you agree that if people’s material self-interest dominates choices in the presence of monetary appeals and wanes when community service or other intrinsic appeals are made salient, that materialism can be said to crowd out non-material, often moral appeals? We are back to Stigler’s proposition that in any test, material self-interest will win over non-material appeals,xviii said Adam. Ah ha, but this time the research is by economists! said Dessie, triumphantly. Consider why people pay taxes under circumstances where the chance of being caught cheating is trivial. Will you agree that the only plausible explanation is that they are responsive to community ethica
