[A] 2002 study (…) looked at how members of 15 small-scale societies played various experimental economics games. In one game, a player split a day’s pay with another player. If the second player didn’t like the amount that the first player offered, he could reject it and both would get nothing. The findings would warm the hearts of market proponents. As Bowles notes, “[I]ndividuals from the more market-oriented societies were also more fair-minded in that they made more generous offers to their experimental partners and more often chose to receive nothing rather than accept an unfair offer. A plausible explanation is that this kind of fair-mindedness is essential to the exchange process and that in market-oriented societies individuals engaging in mutually beneficial exchanges with strangers represent models of successful behavior who are then copied by others.” In other words, as people gain more experience with markets, morals and material incentives pull together.
Ronald Bailey citando Samuel Bowles, em Does the Invisible Hand Need a Helping Hand?
Afinal, parece que à medida que as pessoas se vão habituando ao mercado, vão adoptando comportamentos mais virtuosos. Uma chatice, para aqueles que acham que essas modernices liberais só funcionam lá fora.
