Originally posted by mrfish
...how stupid is that? wouldn't being able to live worry-free vastly outweigh the short term benefit of stealing my whatever? it all comes back to stupid people. as long as they're around, that world is impossible without a police state.
If I have something to steal and the other guy doesn't, how the heck does my worry-free living makes him better off? With little to steal, he lives worry-free anyway! If I can make more money per given time working then stealing and the other guy doesn't, why would I expect him to behave the same as me?
He would be an idiot not to steal from me if I give him an opportunity. He would be an idiot to subscribe to my (or rather your) system that benefits me and you a lot but him not in the least.
Look up the game theory in your math book. You will see that stealing is not an idiocy but an optimal strategy based on effort/risk/reward. The only way to modify his stategy is to modify effort, risk or reward of stealing.
It's amasing how many scientists - physicists, mathematicians, etc. somehow decide that laws of nature only exist in their sciences but not in sociology, economy or psychology.
What you propose as a working system is a wishfull thinking no more founded in reality then a legislative attempt to mandate the value of Pi to more convenient number.
So do not hold you breath for the day we stop doing selfish things - it's contrary to the human nature.
Apache,
If by "good" and "evil" you mean selfless and selfish, then we are evil. An "evil" - selfish man who only cares for himself and his offspring/kin tends to propagate his genes better then the one doing wasting his resources on altruistic things. That should not be confused with cooperation - it may seem like altruism but really it benefits the participant.
Sociobilogy is an established science - and this question is one of its centerpieces.
miko
