Self-Sufficiency and Profit-Seeking

The contemporary American ideal of Self-Sufficiency is akin to both that of Aristotelian Eudaimonism, i. e. Self-Control, and Hobbesian Self-Preservation. However, the popular image of it is usually vaguely and inadequately defined, since it certainly does not entail, as is required in a rigorous analysis of the concept, either self-creation or independence from air, food, water, etc. Instead, it usually connotes social self-reliance, popularly ilustrated by a hermit in the wilderness through whose efforts alone shelter, sustenance, etc. are secured. However, such an Egoist concept has little relevance to classical Capitalism, some of the factors of which include Division of Labor, market exchange, and the promotion of general Wealth. It is closer to more recent Capitalism, insofar as the latter typically jettisons the generality of Smith's goal, and, especially, as a contrast to the popular image of reliance on government assistance associated with Keynesian Economics. Still, lacking, perhaps, conspicuously, in the concept of Self-Sufficiency is an essential feature of either version of Capitalism--a ground of Profit-Seeking, which, thus, remains, without foundation.