22 The Motive Force of Society
As a premise: man is a sentient being endowed with free will. He acts according to what he believes, and has the ability to make choices for better or for worse. The consequences of his choices shape the choices he makes in future, and in general he seeks to choose options that are in line with self-preservation and self-interest. He is attracted to pleasure and averse to pain, and his every action is motivated accordingly, thought limited by imperfect knowledge imperfect reasoning skills.
This is the motive force of each man, and in aggregate it is the motive force of society: each person acts in their self-interest.
Preserving social connections is a matter of self-interest - the two are not at odds. An individual gains significant benefits for himself from working with others in a society. Each exchange with another person is a net gain, and collaboration enables him to achieve more than he could by working on his own. Those instances in which it seems that self-interest is served by a course of action that harms others are the result of limited knowledge and imperfect reasoning. The long-term benefits of social cooperation are greater than the short-term benefit he may gain.
The same limited perception and poor reasoning is seen in arguments against self-interest, and if favor of self-sacrifice of individuals for the short-term benefit to society. A society is but a collection of individuals, and the immolation of the individual is a loss to society - all the more when the most productive members of a society are consumed for the sake of the least productive, as in the long run their value to the survival of that society is greater.
He recognizes that those who demand the abandonment of self-interest are often proposing for someone else to perform an act of self-sacrifice, not offering to do so themselves. And they are likewise supported by those who are also not among the group to be sacrificed - who generally stand to gain by the sacrifices others will make. It is a demonstration in irony to pursue their own self-interest in protest of the interest of others, and a demonstration of hypocrisy to propose an obligation for others to which they will not themselves submit.
He also asserts that the laissez-faire system does not need to be championed or forced upon men: it is the way they behave if left to their own devices. Those who have designs for society find it very difficult to implement them, or to find a way for men to adopt them voluntarily - or at least, they do not attract kind of men on whose labor their utopia will be built - those that wish to enjoy the benefits of the toil of others are attracted easily enough. In that sense, a planned society is an artificial society - and an imaginary society, as it exists only in the realm of imagination.
Political economy, like any branch of philosophy, is useful as a method of observing phenomena and providing advice - and if the advice is any good, it will be taken without hesitation. Show a man a way for him to achieve more benefit with less effort, and he will gladly take it. He will even assume the risk if your argument seems plausible. There is simply no need for government force to implement economic plans - if force is needed, it is a sign the plan is no good.