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According to E. K. Hunt, classical liberals made four assumptions about human nature: People were " egoistic, coldly calculating, essentially inert and atomistic ".
In addition, people were motivated solely by pain and pleasure.
Being calculating, they made decisions intended to maximise pleasure and minimise pain.
If there were no opportunity to increase pleasure or reduce pain, they would become inert.
Therefore, the only motivation for labour was either the possibility of great reward or fear of hunger.
This belief led classical liberal politicians to pass the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which limited the provision of social assistance.
On the other hand, classical liberals believed that men of higher rank were motivated by ambition.
Seeing society as atomistic, they believed that society was no more than the sum of its individual members.
These views departed from earlier views of society as a family and, therefore, greater than the sum of its members.

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