[yodon]

Boundless cynicism won't help you improve things. If the things you read make sense and hold up to your critical analysis and are things you think should happen, try to make them happen. If it should happen that there are others who have a financial reason for wanting to make the things that you want to happen happen, that is not a bad thing, that is a reason for them to help make the things you want to have happen happen, which is good. As the scale of the problem increases, the odds that someone somewhere is trying to find a way to have a financial incentive to solve the problem approaches unity. That doesn't mean big problems shouldn't be solved, it means that people are trying to align their interests with the interests you want to succeed. Again, that's good, if you want to see the problems solved.

[whynotminot]

I don't think it's necessarily cynicism, just a healthy skepticism of my own critical thinking abilities.

Something can be intuitive and seemingly sound and have the real world practical effect of only lining someone's pockets without actually delivering the promised improvements. I think, within reason, it's a good thing to not implicitly trust your own reasoning, and I also think it's good to get an understanding of the motives of whoever is trying to persuade you to their way of thinking.