[hashkb]

This is false. Most people will take advantage of any situation where they detect a low enough chance of consequences, regardleas of who is hurt. We act good because we don't want to be caught, embarrassed, or convicted and condemned.

It's not that most people want to hurt others. It's just that most people care only for themselves. Source: reality.

[burnished]

Hey, we agree that most people don't want to hurt anyone! I think we're much closer to agreeing than you suspect.

Now, we could quibble about whether people are more like to help you or victimize you and we could both be right. Or, we could observe that I'm correct about society functioning mostly because people don't mess with other people very much, you could chalk it up to friction and the lack of interest in others, and I will chalk it up to general back-ground good will.

[hashkb]

I don't agree that society functions well, and I see people mess with each other almost constantly. Your reality seems nice.

[jtsiskin]

I don’t think that is true. The ‘median’ person has empathy and care, and would not hurt someone even if they could be totally undetected - but there is a large skew, which makes this true for the ‘mean’ person and thus ‘reality’, if that makes any sense.

As an example: a bowl of candy on Halloween with a “take 2 pieces only please” sign on it. Most people will only take 2. A few people will grab a handful. And one person will come along and take the whole bowl.

[hashkb]

This is false, too. Those bowls were always empty by the time I got to them.

Edit: ever been at a long line for the bathroom at a big concert or sporting event? Or driven on the roads? There's always someone cheating, often making it more dangerous or painful to be that median person.

[chii]

if you look at the iterated version of your example, you will see that everyone will tend towards being the guy who grabs the whole bowl, or risk missing out on the candy.

Therefore, the parent poster's argument is actually true, even if the median person believes themselves to be empathetic.

[hashkb]

Yes. I'm not saying we choose to be bad. I'm saying we sort of have to, and billionaires get the choice, and still choose to generally do more damage than than any of us will ever have the opportunity to attempt.

[stevetodd]

I’m sorry for the world you live in. It’s not that way for everyone everywhere. I hope you can find your way to some place better.

[hashkb]

Me too! Thanks.