Self Interest

Rational Self-Interest
A key economic assumption is that individuals, in making choices, rationally select alterna- tives they perceive to be in their best interests. By rational, economists mean simply that peo- ple try to make the best choices they can, given the available information. People may not know with certainty which alternative will turn out to be the best.They simply select the alternatives they expect will yield the most satisfaction and happiness. In general, rational self- interest means that individuals try to maximize the expected benefit achieved with a given cost or to minimize the expected cost of achieving a given benefit.