Altruism, by itself doesn't mean much of anything. I could give 10 bucks to a poor man and than that poor man proceed to squander it. I could have given money to the wrong people(who I thought was nice), who then proceed to buy capitals for criminal activities such as murdering individuals.
Of course, it's easy to sneer at the wal-mart or Henry Ford people of the world. However, remember that they have made it much easier to help people by increasing productivity.
An engineer who built a safe water supply system has saved more people than most doctors in the world. A sanitation company has saved lives by preventing the accumulation of trash and by disposing it safely. All of which are occupations that are unseen to the public eyes.
Doctors, we can see. Doctors who work on charity, we can see. But what we can't see is those profiteers who nonetheless help people but are in the background.
Max's assertion was that there is no nobler thing than doing something for a profit. That's simply not true.
Well, I would argue that everything I do, altruistic or not, goes back to satisfying my selfishness. In that point of view, selfishness is a human condition, not something to be ashamed of.
It is also part of the human condition to have social relations with other human beings. Sometime, that might mean caring for others even if we receive no hedonistic benefits. It's quite essential to our health, really.
