Achievement and Social Change
Economists concentrate on consumption as a person’s goal in life,
but of course that is only part of a person’s utility function. He
also wants self-esteem and the esteem of others for his
accomplishments. These accomplishments might be externals such as
writing books or earning a lot of money or internals such as being a
good wife or a good American. By “internals”, I mean the achievement
of a certain identity, of matching to some ideal. Thus, a soldier may
be proud of having killed many of the enemy, an external, but he might
also be proud simply of obeying orders and being a good soldier.
Whether it be esteem or self-esteem, this desire for achievements
gives rise to lots of externalities. Some of them are spillovers from
the person achieving to others. Some go the other way. In particular,
if other people change what they value, a person’s achievements can go
for nothing, a big loss to him. This is one reason why changes in
what society values are so contentious. When being a good wife becomes
less valued, or the definition of “a good American” changes, people
who have been following the old goals lose. They understandably object
to the changes.