The business ecosystem, like biological ecosystems, involves forms of collective life that have learned how to sustain themselves in competitive environments, usually by seeking moats. Those moats "rig the game". The moats tend to fail when the environment changes; e.g. due to technical innovation, social movement, external shocks. It is the central interest of any business to build moats and drawbridges.
Life is turtles all the way down and drawbridges all the way up. Anyone seeking opportunities is looking for the openings between those moats and drawbridges.
I'm curious what strikes you as pessimistic in this comment versus just being realistic about the current social structures implicit to the US (I cant speak for the rest of the world)?
Probably because GGP’s comment reflects a narrow, unfavorable, and extreme view of reality
> Real life is a rigged game where rules are not enforced
Even in the United States, there are plenty of stupid and non-stupid rules that people are forced to follow in order to “play the game”. There are also plenty of rules that only apply to certain groups. There are also plenty of people who don’t play the game at all.
Maybe if GGP weren’t so extreme and negatively one-sided with his view, then it’d come off as less pessimistic and more critical.
I would probably say "cynical" rather than "pessimistic". I would also say that it does not actually reflect reality. Reality is also not the exact opposite of this perspective. Reality simply doesn't bear reduction to either "everything is a rigged game" or "everything is fair"; it's more complicated than that.
Life is turtles all the way down and drawbridges all the way up. Anyone seeking opportunities is looking for the openings between those moats and drawbridges.