The majority of people are faced with a tough decision: Do the thing that benefits your community to your own (often mild) detriment, or do the thing that benef

The majority of people are faced with a tough decision: Do the thing that benefits your community to your own (often mild) detriment, or do the thing that benefits you at the cost of the community. I think generally people are willing to sacrifice a little for the benefit of their community. Let the city tax you more to build a library, pay a bit more at the restaurant so the workers there make a bit more, whatever. But sometimes if we're scared or anxious about the future and our place it in, we lean more into the self-interest category. You get a few generations of this and it's going sideways. You get a few folks that lean so hard into it, and have enough charisma and opportunity to convince people that what they're doing is great, and it's going sideways very fast. Tragically, many the benefits that previous generations enjoyed were not a windfall, but a debt that is coming due. And each subsequent generation is borrowing more to pay the inherited debt.