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Originally Posted by mist
i find that people's motives are often as important as their actions, particularly if you're trying to use one of their actions to predict others.
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Yes but in this context what you're basically saying is "People don't help others unless they have reasons to" which is infuriatingly obvious.
"Self-interest" and "the common good" are not at odds with each other, as has been said numerous times. This, in fact is the principle behind most human arrangements (including funnily enough, markets!). I spend time with my friends because I enjoy it. They also enjoy it. Everyone benefits. The reason why Madi's point (which boils down to "people aren't perfect") is irrelevent because no-one is claiming people have to behave in a superhuman manner for "communism" to work (whatever you're defining that as).
Whether people give to charity because it excites them sexually or whether because they think it's the right thing to do is actually pretty irrelevent - it's actually the same motive, eventually (since "the right thing to do" basically makes them feel better anyway).