GRE寫作優秀實例：個人主義和社會更大利益

　　People today are too individualistic. Instead of pursuing self-centered, separate goals,people need to understand that satisfaction comes from working for the greater good of the family, the community, or society as a whole.

　　現在的人們太個人主義了。與其追求以個人為中心和孤立的目標，人們更需要明白滿足是源于為家庭、社區或者整個社會的更大利益的服務。

　　正文：

　　The modern economics stands on the basis of some core assumptions, one of which is that when individuals and private companies strive for their own good, usually by the same token they contribute to the whole society, whether consciously or unconsciously.Along with the development of free economy goes individualism that seemingly amounts to egoism. People have never cease questioning individualism and some advocate collectivism instead. In my view, however, until now individualism still serves the society at large very well because the society has inherent capability to convert individual pursuits into societal contributions.

　　I used to be an advocator for collectivism. I even remember a sentence from a passage criticizing individualism fiercely: Individualism +individualism=collectivism? Of course, individualism cannot change into collectivism by a simply plus. I also, even now, firmly stand against egoism that emphasizes ones self to an extreme extent that he or she ignores or despises others and is somewhat anti-social.

　　However, it is unfair and often counterproductive to compel societal interests onto individuals by external forces, such as political propaganda. First of all, most people have limited duty and therefore power to pursue the stability, progress or other issues of the large society. If such exertion on common people goes too far, they will naturally feel trespassed upon and thus be pushed toward egoism instead.

　　Now I have realized, in light of economics, that the society itself does have a magic to make people serve it indirectly while they are only trying to maximize their own interests. Except a few political leaders, business entrepreneurs and social activities,people seldom need to make unwilling trade-offs between their individual interests and that of the entire society. In fact, the two overlap in most cases and the chief difference is the latter just is hidden beneath the former.

　　Consider, for example, a medicine engineer who is very common and not concerned with what the society needs. Rather than such abstract concept as society, he serves his concrete customers very well by researching and developing more effective and economical medicines. He is not a hero who can influence the society to the extent that newspapers would report about him. Nevertheless, he is really contributing his part to the society by saving lives or just make people healthy. Legal jobs, namely most jobs, are also beneficial to the society.

　　The notion of global interests of society is derived from the needs of individual. An individual needs health, and medicine industry meets it. Similarly, most needs of people can be satisfied by jobs of individuals, usually more effective and efficient than by the government or the like. Working for jobs, people win rewards for their contribution to the society as a whole and are thus not likely to degenerate into selfish anti-social ones.

　　The society innately operates in this way that individuals serve each other in order to earn for their own good. Individualism, as long as it is healthily developed, especially avoiding from undue advocating for collectivism, usually does not result in egoism.When people improve their well-beings by legitimate jobs, they actually add to the interests of the society. Just as an old saying goes, all for one, one for all.

　　People today are too individualistic. Instead of pursuing self-centered, separate goals,people need to understand that satisfaction comes from working for the greater good of the family, the community, or society as a whole.

　　現在的人們太個人主義了。與其追求以個人為中心和孤立的目標，人們更需要明白滿足是源于為家庭、社區或者整個社會的更大利益的服務。

　　正文：

　　The modern economics stands on the basis of some core assumptions, one of which is that when individuals and private companies strive for their own good, usually by the same token they contribute to the whole society, whether consciously or unconsciously.Along with the development of free economy goes individualism that seemingly amounts to egoism. People have never cease questioning individualism and some advocate collectivism instead. In my view, however, until now individualism still serves the society at large very well because the society has inherent capability to convert individual pursuits into societal contributions.

　　I used to be an advocator for collectivism. I even remember a sentence from a passage criticizing individualism fiercely: Individualism +individualism=collectivism? Of course, individualism cannot change into collectivism by a simply plus. I also, even now, firmly stand against egoism that emphasizes ones self to an extreme extent that he or she ignores or despises others and is somewhat anti-social.

　　However, it is unfair and often counterproductive to compel societal interests onto individuals by external forces, such as political propaganda. First of all, most people have limited duty and therefore power to pursue the stability, progress or other issues of the large society. If such exertion on common people goes too far, they will naturally feel trespassed upon and thus be pushed toward egoism instead.

　　Now I have realized, in light of economics, that the society itself does have a magic to make people serve it indirectly while they are only trying to maximize their own interests. Except a few political leaders, business entrepreneurs and social activities,people seldom need to make unwilling trade-offs between their individual interests and that of the entire society. In fact, the two overlap in most cases and the chief difference is the latter just is hidden beneath the former.

　　Consider, for example, a medicine engineer who is very common and not concerned with what the society needs. Rather than such abstract concept as society, he serves his concrete customers very well by researching and developing more effective and economical medicines. He is not a hero who can influence the society to the extent that newspapers would report about him. Nevertheless, he is really contributing his part to the society by saving lives or just make people healthy. Legal jobs, namely most jobs, are also beneficial to the society.

　　The notion of global interests of society is derived from the needs of individual. An individual needs health, and medicine industry meets it. Similarly, most needs of people can be satisfied by jobs of individuals, usually more effective and efficient than by the government or the like. Working for jobs, people win rewards for their contribution to the society as a whole and are thus not likely to degenerate into selfish anti-social ones.

　　The society innately operates in this way that individuals serve each other in order to earn for their own good. Individualism, as long as it is healthily developed, especially avoiding from undue advocating for collectivism, usually does not result in egoism.When people improve their well-beings by legitimate jobs, they actually add to the interests of the society. Just as an old saying goes, all for one, one for all.