[laxmin]

Assuming both are completely rational and take decisions that are most beneficial to their citizens short and long term welfare.

Such an assumption has no rational basis itself.

[jychang]

You need to read up on philosophy. Mostly Hegel’s Dialectics. These two statements are not contradictory and are both simultaneously true. dialectics (used with a sing. verb) A method of argument or exposition that systematically weighs contradictory facts or ideas with a view to the resolution of their real or apparent contradictions. The contradiction between two conflicting forces viewed as the determining factor in their continuing interaction.