Rethinking the 'why'

What is the point of doing good? Often we find that doing good brings much less benefit than doing evil.

I'll use the example of a lawful and unlawful man.

Clearly the man who over charges when selling his goods has the upper hand over the man who sells at a lower profit margin. One cheats his customers into spending more, and the other allows himself to suffer a little more (or longer) in order for his customers to spend less. The unlawful one here has the upper hand. So why is the lawful man doing good?

My initial theory was that all men are selfish. But not selfish in greedy sort of way, but selfish in a sense that every choice made by him is to grant him benefit. In the scenario above, both men believe they have the upper hand. Although Socrates might argue differently(his discussion ends with the conclusion that the unlawful man has the advantage), the 'selfish theory' was not considered by him.

On a brief side note, I thought of this theory that all men make choices that benefit themselves in July 2008. But I realized, when my father introduced me to Friedrich Nietzsche in October, that he already thought of all this hundreds of years before me!

Anyway.

Socrates failed to answer, let alone present the question : why does the lawful man remain lawful, conscious of his disadvantage?

Or maybe the question should be : What does the lawful man get in return for being just that?

The answer, I found, was using the theory of selfishness.

The lawful man was thinking of nearly every factor that turned to his advantage over the unlawful man other than money(and related material factors).

The lawful man might consciously or even subconsciously know of the ramifications of his kindness and lawfulness. His customers will have a higher probability of returning(but this isn't the main reason he remains lawful).

The lawful man does not hold material wealth as his main desire.

[I look forward to doing the happiness post, in which i will talk about how having money does not lead to happiness, but is auxiliary to our well being]

The lawful man seeks the deeper satisfaction that is often felt when good or kindness is done to another human being.

I call it pride. So, I conclude that, the lawful man is just as selfish as the unlawful man; but what they both seek are completely different.

Plus, the lawful man doesn't put other people in disadvantage(instead, quite the opposite) when being naturally selfish.

Sure, there are a billion and one other reasons to remain lawful, but at 3 in the morning, I'd rather summarize.

So the question now is;
What do you seek to gain out of every choice you make?
A slave does his masters bidding to avoid further injury upon himself.
In fact, you can find that little piece of 'selfishness' in every action every sane human has ever made.
Or so I hypothesize.