I wouldn't necessarily say that it's human nature, but Western culture. Yes, there are those who most value surpassing others at any cost, but that is their per

I wouldn't necessarily say that it's human nature, but Western culture. Yes, there are those who most value surpassing others at any cost, but that is their personal culture, and not the singularity of human nature. I think that people choose which roles of their multi-faceted human nature to act upon and which ones to avoid. It's possible that an education that teaches the values mentioned in the article would give similar advantages as those in the past. The difficulty is that a large source of people's education is the surrounding culture itself, so people pick up values that they see others pursuing. So if young people see the example of adults endlessly accumulating wealth and spending frivolously, then those observing think, "hm, maybe this is a good idea," and so they emulate, and the problem continues. And for those who have been doing and valuing the same the same thing as their neighbours for so long, just assume that it's "human nature," and not some human choice with many advantages and disadvantages.