The economic principle I researched was “People generally respond to incentives in predictable ways” and “Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices.”
Adam Smith's idea of greed being the natural driving force of people is flawed. It is a flawed idea that has become woven into us Americans as the sole reason that there is inequality. However, this is not the case. It is a fact that currency based economies, market economies, and Capitalism as a whole have not been around that long, at least in comparison to the rest of human history. This is because Capitalism is not natural, it has only created the conditions for people to tend towards greed. Some of the first human societies were actually the antithesis to market economies, gift economies. And gift economies still exist today even in a market dominated world. That is not to say that gift economies are Socialist, but they prove that we are capable of both generosity and greed; we are capable of Socialism just as much as we are Capitalism. To answer my initial question, incentives in Libertarian Socialism would be altruistic rather than greed based. People would actually be incentivized for productive labor in this way.
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