The author analyzes the place of basic ethic question — the problem of individual choice — in the polemics of A. Smith with B. Mandeville, theorems of R. Coase, K. Arrow, in “prisoner’s dilemma” and other liberal theories. She arrives at the conclusion that modern scholars, like representatives of classical school, consider ethical behavior of human as a key driver of economic development and welfare. The author also concludes that spiritual and moral education is a particularly important social good.