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wasoxygen  ·  3878 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: An interesting question

    You or I, as human beings, are uncomfortable, and wish to improve the wealth of our society. Good on us, but we're a tiny minority.

Out of a sample size of 2, then, 100% of us care about the welfare of others and would not selfishly improve our condition if it meant harming others.

This is not much data, so I did an experiment. I looked through my phone's contact list and counted all the people I think I know well enough to decide if they are also like us. By the time I got to about 50, there were none of whom I was certain they would be willing to hurt others to get ahead, and only a few of whom I was not sure. The majority of the people I know seem decent and I believe they are also very uncomfortable seeing other humans suffer.

Is your experience different? Do you know a lot of people who, in this scenario, would be comfortable paying a "pittance" to have people mow their lawn and wash their car, not caring that they are trying to "keep their family alive"?