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Capitalism fosters motivations that corrode the values of community and solidarity. The driving motivation for capitalist investment and production is economic self-interest. Adam Smith expressed this idea in his classic book, The Wealth of Nations: "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. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages." Philosopher G. A. Cohen, in an essay called "Why Not Socialism?," adds fear as an additional central motivation within capitalist markets: "The immediate motive to productive activity in a market society is … typically some mixture of greed and fear." In greed, other people are "seen as possible sources of enrich-ment, and [in fear they are seen] as threats to one's success. These are horrible ways of seeing other people, however much we have become habituated and inured to them, as a result of centuries of capitalist civilization."

Greed and fear are motivations fostered by the nature of competitive markets; they should not be treated simply as character traits of individuals within a market.

— How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century by Erik Olin Wright (28%)