Among economists' insights over the last almost 250 years, one of the keenest is that one can do good while doing well. The idea traces to Adam Smith. It means capitalists'/entrepreneurs' pursuit of profit can have favorable consequences for the community at large—and not just for capitalists and entrepreneurs. It applies equally to landowners and workers pursuing their own interests.

The following are two of Smith's statements of the "doing good while doing well" proposition. The first is from The Wealth of Nations and the latter from Smith's 1759 Theory of Moral Sentiments.

"It is not from the benevolence of the Butcher, the Brewer or the Baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

"Every individual... neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it... he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention."

What Doing Good While Doing Well I