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In the 90s, my relatives first came to the US. In those days, there were newspaper dispensing machines on the sidewalk, which worked like this: 1. It was a box
by paisawalla 4y ago
In the 90s, my relatives first came to the US. In those days, there were newspaper dispensing machines on the sidewalk, which worked like this:
1. It was a box on the sidewalk with a locked swing-out door facing forward.
2. You put coins into the machine and the door unlocks.
3. Inside are all the newspapers. You put your hand in and take only one.
4. You close the door and it locks.
The first thing my relatives asked after seeing this was "why do you only take one?"
If you model society as a Nash equilibrium, the impulse to veer towards social betrayal is present in all people and societies. It's an obvious instinct and the fact that people are so open about indulging it only indicates that we're returning to the historic mean for humans, that the trust required to have a society based on mutual cooperation is vanishing. The only galling thing here is that the people to whom the most social benefits flow -- software engineers, product managers, executives -- are so brazen about betraying it, or cheering the betrayal of others.
I don't know where you emigrated to, but unless it's Saudi Arabia or Singapore, I would doubt your observation. Americans and Euros have a tendency to view everyone else as Rousseau's "noble savage", i.e. a romanticized alien.
- ghaff 4y agoOn the one hand, I guess you need a certain level of social trust for newspaper dispensing machines to work. On the other hand, there's very little value to be gained by taking 10 newspapers. I suppose you can hawk them on the street for a discount but the benefit is pretty small.
- paisawalla 4y agoOn the third hand, the idea to ask "is more actually better than less" can only occur to people after they've become accustomed to a certain level of prosperity.
- munk-a 4y agoI emigrated up to Canada and it certainly is still present here but it isn't nearly as praised. In Vancouver a "starter" home is valued in the millions so wealth inequality is very much present here as well - but there is much more of a social rejection of wealth acquisition through under handed means. Trudeau got into a lot of political trouble over SNC-Lavlin and Doug Ford is currently getting a lot of crap over handouts of park lands to developer buddies. I don't want it to sound like everything is perfect but when people acquire power or wealth through exploitation they actually suffer for it up here instead of it being viewed as a virtue.