drethelin comments on Stupid Questions September 2015 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: polymathwannabe 02 September 2015 06:26PM

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Comment author: drethelin 04 September 2015 07:38:17PM 4 points [-]

Capitalism sets up rules based on practicality and repeated interactions between people, which means that they actually make sense to follow even if you are purely selfish. In a system where the rules are based on empathy or ideology, the psychopath will have ZERO desire to follow the rules if they won't get caught, but because interacting peacefully in trade with people actually pays off they get incentivized not to just do whatever they might impulsively want.