Reading The Fable of the Bees | Alexandria
Read The Fable of the Bees by Bernard Mandeville. Revealing how private vices fuel public prosperity, the provocative bee icon exposes capitalism's crucial paradox: selfish desires create collective good. Mandeville's scandalous 1714 insight - that greed, vanity and luxury drive economic growth - still challenges moral assumptions, suggesting virtue alone can't build thriving societies.