Interesting question raised by a great book

I finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for my AP English 4 class, and on our first day back from vacation we were asked to respond to this question:

"Does society exist primarily to benefit people as a whole, or does it exist for the improvement of the individual?"

(I'll use 'society' and 'the government' interchangeably throughout my response, because the government is what makes the rules for a society)

Looking at this from an economic perspective, the primary purpose of society is to benefit people as a whole. Society gives everyone equal opportunities to excel and be personally successful (e.g. bank loans, grants, scholarships, etc...). Some people choose to take advantage of these opportunities while others don't; which usually correlates with their levels of success and happiness. Society can only go so far to appeal to everyone because scarcity limits them to only being able to provide necessities for their people, and one of the key assumptions in economics states that people have three basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing. Everything else is considered a want and it's assumed that people have unlimited wants. However, another key assumption in economics is that everyone is rationally self-interested, meaning that everyone's actions can be seen as steps to fulfilling their ultimate goals or interests, whether it be spiritual satisfaction or monetary gain. Now that I've gone into a little of the reasoning for both sides, I wanted to say that I chose the 'society for society' angle because the question asked "does society exist primarily to...". That single word changes everything. Society can only continue to exist if the individuals who are apart of it have it's best interests at heart, not their own. Society can give individuals opportunities to better their own life, but its primary purpose is to maintain the equilibrium of the economy -- making sure the plumbing keeps flowing. When we allow our self-interest to become irrational on too wide a scale, then we will inevitably kill what society stands for: helping everyone.

Society helps everyone by not allowing everyone to help themselves.

Hello!11!!1one!

This is the first of what I hope will be many posts that covers how I see the world or just anything in particular that may fascinate/irk me on a given day. Now, this first post is merely to get my foot in the door of the blogging world. With that being said, I don't plan on making any humorous or insightful statements, as well as raising any deep, thought-provoking questions, YET. I believe the rest of the profile gives you some basic information about me and what I'm all about, so I won't bother repeating it here.

One of, if not the only goal I hope to accomplish with this blog is not to gain readers, but to learn a little bit more about myself and my world, as well as meet some new and interesting people.

Don't be afraid to talk to me or throw a hypothetical or two out there for me to comment on.