You assume that your wage is proportional to the value you deliver to the world. Bad. Not correct. Try again. There is a positive correlation on the population level, but on the individual level the relationship is tenuous at best.
It's not relevant to my argument. The point was that in some cases, individualism can be efficient. A didactic example is meant to be recognized as such and not attacked for technicalities in its formulation; rigor was not here the goal. Note, for example, the use of "maybe". But congratulations for irrelevant nitpicking, I guess.
Sorry about that. I thought the "maybe" was sarcastic.
Anyway, the parent's point seems to be that individualism is a strategy that is optimal for a single person, but suboptimal for society. The reason is that what activity maximizes your financial return does not generally maximize the return for society as a whole. Individualism is therefore not optimal. A specific example would be a world that had no crime and therefore no need for security, law enforcement etc. Obviously a lot more efficient than a world with crime. However, since stealing would be free of consequence, individualism dictates that you should steal in this hypothetical world. Everything may not be a prisoner's dilemma, but most is. I don't see how that's nitpicking.
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You assume that your wage is proportional to the value you deliver to the world. Bad. Not correct. Try again. There is a positive correlation on the population level, but on the individual level the relationship is tenuous at best.
It's not relevant to my argument. The point was that in some cases, individualism can be efficient. A didactic example is meant to be recognized as such and not attacked for technicalities in its formulation; rigor was not here the goal. Note, for example, the use of "maybe". But congratulations for irrelevant nitpicking, I guess.
Sorry about that. I thought the "maybe" was sarcastic.
Anyway, the parent's point seems to be that individualism is a strategy that is optimal for a single person, but suboptimal for society. The reason is that what activity maximizes your financial return does not generally maximize the return for society as a whole. Individualism is therefore not optimal. A specific example would be a world that had no crime and therefore no need for security, law enforcement etc. Obviously a lot more efficient than a world with crime. However, since stealing would be free of consequence, individualism dictates that you should steal in this hypothetical world. Everything may not be a prisoner's dilemma, but most is. I don't see how that's nitpicking.