Having travelled a fair bit, I can tell you that economic insecurity breeds a culture of selfishness, not the other way around. Where people are not economicall

Having travelled a fair bit, I can tell you that economic insecurity breeds a culture of selfishness, not the other way around. Where people are not economically precarious, there's almost no culture of trying to get one up on those around you. It's when you're scared of falling behind that you struggle so hard to keep yourself ahead. Wealth inequality is strongly correlated but ultimately not the root cause -- it is rather precarity that causes many of our social ills.