free market..

"The free market is a successful motivator of people because it does not rely upon the altruism of its participants."

Altruism is individual dependent and can't be built in a model for developing a robust process of economic exchange. Hence free market systems shall work better as a process in a large system while planned system can work in a small organization where altruism can be determined using personal interactions.

But selfishness taken to its extreme level , doesn't it cause the system to die from its own weight?
Well the thing is to have the right systems in place. All externalities are taken care of and a person is penalized for his extravagance. Is it easy to put the system in place?

No certainly not . There are lot of thin lines to be taken care of . The question is whether this line of thinking has been well accepted truth or still there needs to be debate around it.