Seriously, people need to keep this in their mind at all times. Every single publicly traded company in the world would happily throw a bus full of children into a volcano if it got them a fraction of a point in next quarter’s numbers.
Yet people still defend the system that enables these greedy fucks, as if greedy fucks don’t exist and corporations will toootally work in a logical manner…
Peoples’ hubris toward the evils of their neighbors will be the death of humanity. Someone who fires a bunch of people to save money isn’t a “boss making hard decisions” They’re an asshole throwing people away to protect profit.
Yet people still defend the system that enables these greedy fucks
Greed is an innate part of the human condition. There is NO system that can be created and managed by Humans that will not eventually fall victim too, and likely fall because of, greed.
Greed is built into people and will eventually topple all systems of economics or government, NONE of them are immune.
Just because greed exists does not mean it needs to be systemically enabled.
In any system maintained by humans greed will eventually become systemically enabled. Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Monarchy…it doesn’t matter.
When there is power and money to be had the people who love those things will ceaselessly flock to it and no Government in the history of humanity has ever managed to stop those people from eventually taking over.
Greed and psychopathy will float to the top of every system, because the greediest and most psychopathic will inevitably see the system as a game to be won.
Ideally we shun it, but the “useful psychopath” is helpful to our own greed.
If only we could prevent it, but I don’t have that answer.
If only we could prevent it, but I don’t have that answer.
There is no answer. You could literally create a policing body whose sole function was to find the greedy and psychopathic and remove them from society and that body would quickly become home to the very people its charged with removing. It takes so very few people to start the inevitable decline and its impossible to perfectly screen them out forever.
Preventive maintenance is a thing. As long as we keep wanting to work towards a better system we will move towards a better system. You say it will eventually fall. How far is eventually? I bet we could push it out til at least the heat death of the universe if we tried doing something other than robbing one-another.
That would work if the majority of people stayed interested…forever. This has literally never happened in recorded history.
How far is eventually?
It varies, longest in History was 1,500 years (Roman Empire) but as information accelerates so to does greed. The US is looking like it may be done around the 250 year mark but a lot of that was when information and society moved much slower. Younger Techno-Nations are declining at nearly the same rate and are unlikely to make even make that much.
I bet we could push it out til at least the heat death of the universe if we tried doing something other than robbing one-another.
That’s the rub. There has always been and will always be enough people robbing each other to break a system, any system. Its only a matter of time and I seriously think the amount of time it takes has a lot do with the pace of society and speed of information.
People have been interested in civilization since the dawn of civilization, dude. Even when it collapses it regrows. We’re naturally social creatures and ideas don’t die. Even in times of decline people aspire to do better.
Medieval European peasants knew what Roman aqueducts were for. They knew that civilization had fallen, but they made a new one and eventually it regrew to the point of the previous Roman empire, and then beyond, through ups and downs, until now.
Not everyone remains interested the whole time, but it does carry forward.
Yeah. That’s how culture works from an anthropological lens. Culture makes people and people make culture and each individual moves the needle just a microscopic amount while some move it a bit more. (Gross simplification) my wife has a master’s in classical anthropo and I had some exposure to anthropological theory lol.
Corporations would do literally anything for their “mah quarterly profits and mah shareholders”.
Seriously, people need to keep this in their mind at all times. Every single publicly traded company in the world would happily throw a bus full of children into a volcano if it got them a fraction of a point in next quarter’s numbers.
Yet people still defend the system that enables these greedy fucks, as if greedy fucks don’t exist and corporations will toootally work in a logical manner…
Peoples’ hubris toward the evils of their neighbors will be the death of humanity. Someone who fires a bunch of people to save money isn’t a “boss making hard decisions” They’re an asshole throwing people away to protect profit.
Greed is an innate part of the human condition. There is NO system that can be created and managed by Humans that will not eventually fall victim too, and likely fall because of, greed.
Greed is built into people and will eventually topple all systems of economics or government, NONE of them are immune.
Just because greed exists does not mean it needs to be systemically enabled.
In fact, it means the exact opposite: It is a problem that we’ll always have to deal with and cannot ignore.
In any system maintained by humans greed will eventually become systemically enabled. Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Monarchy…it doesn’t matter.
When there is power and money to be had the people who love those things will ceaselessly flock to it and no Government in the history of humanity has ever managed to stop those people from eventually taking over.
You’re both right.
Greed and psychopathy will float to the top of every system, because the greediest and most psychopathic will inevitably see the system as a game to be won.
Ideally we shun it, but the “useful psychopath” is helpful to our own greed.
If only we could prevent it, but I don’t have that answer.
There is no answer. You could literally create a policing body whose sole function was to find the greedy and psychopathic and remove them from society and that body would quickly become home to the very people its charged with removing. It takes so very few people to start the inevitable decline and its impossible to perfectly screen them out forever.
Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. This is a very defeatist attitude you seem to have. I get it, btw.
Preventive maintenance is a thing. As long as we keep wanting to work towards a better system we will move towards a better system. You say it will eventually fall. How far is eventually? I bet we could push it out til at least the heat death of the universe if we tried doing something other than robbing one-another.
That would work if the majority of people stayed interested…forever. This has literally never happened in recorded history.
It varies, longest in History was 1,500 years (Roman Empire) but as information accelerates so to does greed. The US is looking like it may be done around the 250 year mark but a lot of that was when information and society moved much slower. Younger Techno-Nations are declining at nearly the same rate and are unlikely to make even make that much.
That’s the rub. There has always been and will always be enough people robbing each other to break a system, any system. Its only a matter of time and I seriously think the amount of time it takes has a lot do with the pace of society and speed of information.
People have been interested in civilization since the dawn of civilization, dude. Even when it collapses it regrows. We’re naturally social creatures and ideas don’t die. Even in times of decline people aspire to do better.
Medieval European peasants knew what Roman aqueducts were for. They knew that civilization had fallen, but they made a new one and eventually it regrew to the point of the previous Roman empire, and then beyond, through ups and downs, until now.
Not everyone remains interested the whole time, but it does carry forward.
Yeah. That’s how culture works from an anthropological lens. Culture makes people and people make culture and each individual moves the needle just a microscopic amount while some move it a bit more. (Gross simplification) my wife has a master’s in classical anthropo and I had some exposure to anthropological theory lol.
I mean, the problem is that people who suck at satisfying their greed fight tooth and nail to protect the greed of others.
It doesn’t make sense for most people to support a system where most people are losers, but here we are.
It makes sense if the false idea that “you can be like the greedy ones in power if you work to prop them up”