Is Utilitarianism a flawed concept?

I don’t think it’s correct to say that human societies should be run under the principles of utilitarianism. I have reasons to believe that utilitarianism isn’t really practical under any circumstances. If you’ve taken a basic psychology class, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Maslows hierarchy of needs” which is this fancy theory that people have basic, secondary, and tertiary needs. A person will always put its basic needs above its secondary and tertiary needs, and this basic need is no other than pleasure.<br><br>The highest level of Maslows hierarchy of needs is self actualization. The idea behind self actualization is that a human will want to reach their full potential, be the best version of themselves they can be. A human is no longer looking out for only pleasure and fulfilling secondary needs like friendship and community, their goal is to achieve something.<br><br>The problem with utilitarianism is that people who are self-actualized no longer have a desire to fulfill the pleasure of others no matter how much pleasure that could bring to the world. This are people who are interested in fulfilling their own goals, especially since they’ve already conquered their basic needs and their secondary needs.<br><br>If we were to run the world under utilitarian principles, the people best suited to do so would be people who are pleasure driven. People who are pleasure driven are unlikely to do what is best for society. These people are unlikely to care about the pleasure of others and don’t have any interest in elevating society.<br><br>However, if we leave the world to be run by self-actualized people, they will be mostly focused on fulfilling their own needs, and won’t really have an interest in making sure people’s basic needs are met. I believe the people who you would find in any government are mostly people looking to fulfill their pleasure. They’re typically greedy, and would value personal pleasure over the good of society. This is why governments tend to not really be run under utilitarian principles, but under the principles of who can get the most pleasure.<br><br>However, under utilitarian principles, it would make sense to appoint people who have been self actualized for a very long time, and have now made the choice to seek pleasure. This is a problem, because in order to run a world in a utilitarian way, no one would want to be self actualized for a very long time. The world would lack achievement, innovation, and advancement. Any time people would reach the stage of self-actualization for a little too long, they would be forced out of their jobs to do utilitarian work.<br><br>TLDR: Any person who runs a utilitarian society would either prioritize their own desires, or its own desires, but not the desires of others.