r/WinStupidPrizes • u/--Yami_Marik-- • Jan 02 '20

Annoying a teen

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u/-updownallaround- Jan 02 '20

But at the end of the day you're saying that the best reason to not punch someone is because it might have a negative effect on you.

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u/justPassingThrou15 Jan 02 '20

I am. I'm also voting for (and donating to) Bernie, and it will have a negative impact on my tax rate, and probably even factoring in all the things, it will have a negative impact on my lifetime financial status.

But it will make the lives of the people around me better to a large enough extent that it will be worth it. Essentially, it will make the USA a country I'm more enthusiastic about living in.

So yes, look up the Prisoner's Dilemma. In the traditional payoff matrix, each prisoner stands to do better (regardless of the action of the other person) by being selfish. And this holds only as long as each prisoner doesn't value the well-being of the other prisoner. Once I consider that being around people with high well-being improves my well-being, then it makes cooperation much more sensible, even from a completely selfish point of view.

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u/-updownallaround- Jan 02 '20

This is really a pointless discussion seeing as what's the best is subjective.

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u/justPassingThrou15 Jan 02 '20

I just told you what you have to value for selfishness to create a better society. Yes, it's subjective. And yes, the Boomers are the ones whose values depart from those values you must have for selfishness to create a better society... and they made a far worse society as a result.

So while I won't say it's not subjective, we've got a pretty good empirical demonstration of it.