Who is to say that selfishness is better than altruism? Altruism seems to be a human trait as well -- we do act altruistically on occassion. It's not clear to

Who is to say that selfishness is better than altruism? Altruism seems to be a human trait as well -- we do act altruistically on occassion. It's not clear to me whether that's a bug or a feature. Most cases in which altruism would be possible in the ancestral environment are cases in which acting "altruistically" actually benefits the actor in the long run. We're now in a world where it's less clear that those actions will benefit the actor (or actor's genes), on balance. Altruism does result in arguably worse outcomes in many cases (food aid to Africa, liberating Iraq, etc) in the modern world. Is it impossible to build a financial system based on altruism? Well, it doesn't seem stable. A financial system based on self-interest is stable when there are a few people with altruistic motives in the system. A financial system based on altruism would rapidly fail in the presence of a few self-interested people in the system. Edit: removed extra "actually"s.