Brutal, just brutal that people can be so blatantly self-interested. I have a close family member who insists there's no rental crisis that rents have always been high and that the stats from rentals.ca aren't a true reflection of monthly averages and that finding a 1-bedroom for $1400 in Toronto was definitely possible. As if!
I figure that people are always going to be at least somewhat self-interested. The key is to point out that housing being scarce and expensive is also going to be bad for them: https://morehousing.ca/cooperation
Of course. But society is in some ways about learning to temper our self interest in the interest of the common good, which keeps the whole thing going. Or something like that. Your framing is, as always, better!
Thanks! I think the term that's sometimes used is "enlightened self-interest." I like Joseph Heath's view, which is that cooperation is surprisingly difficult and what we need is good *institutions* that facilitate cooperation.
Hans Morgenthau quotes George Washington along the same lines:
"A small knowledge of human nature will convince us, that, with far the greatest part of mankind, interest is the governing principle; and that, almost, every man is more or less, under its influence. Motives of public virtue may for a time, or in particular instances, actuate men to the observance of a conduct purely disinterested; but they are not of themselves sufficient to produce persevering conformity to the refined dictates and obligations of social duty. Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good. **It is vain to exclaim against the depravity of human nature on this account**; the fact is so, the experience of every age and nation has proved it and we must in a great measure, change the constitution of man, before we can make it otherwise. No institution, not built on the presumptive truth of these maxims can succeed."
Brutal, just brutal that people can be so blatantly self-interested. I have a close family member who insists there's no rental crisis that rents have always been high and that the stats from rentals.ca aren't a true reflection of monthly averages and that finding a 1-bedroom for $1400 in Toronto was definitely possible. As if!
I figure that people are always going to be at least somewhat self-interested. The key is to point out that housing being scarce and expensive is also going to be bad for them: https://morehousing.ca/cooperation
Of course. But society is in some ways about learning to temper our self interest in the interest of the common good, which keeps the whole thing going. Or something like that. Your framing is, as always, better!
Thanks! I think the term that's sometimes used is "enlightened self-interest." I like Joseph Heath's view, which is that cooperation is surprisingly difficult and what we need is good *institutions* that facilitate cooperation.
Hans Morgenthau quotes George Washington along the same lines:
"A small knowledge of human nature will convince us, that, with far the greatest part of mankind, interest is the governing principle; and that, almost, every man is more or less, under its influence. Motives of public virtue may for a time, or in particular instances, actuate men to the observance of a conduct purely disinterested; but they are not of themselves sufficient to produce persevering conformity to the refined dictates and obligations of social duty. Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good. **It is vain to exclaim against the depravity of human nature on this account**; the fact is so, the experience of every age and nation has proved it and we must in a great measure, change the constitution of man, before we can make it otherwise. No institution, not built on the presumptive truth of these maxims can succeed."