Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[Brian H]

emmetb wrote: This thread is at risk of going up in flame(war)s. That would be a pity because there is also an interesting underlying debate going on.

Acceptable rules are the ones which provide just the minimum restraint on action necessary to keep agreed-on goals accessible to all. Those which favor some at the expense of others break the game or society in the end.

What should be our more fundamental premisse: to minimize restraints, or to maximize cooperation?

Attempting to enforce maximized co-operation is merely to reward manipulators. People will co-operate when they actually believe that supporting other(s)’ goal(s) is also the best way to achieve their own. Demanding altruism is merely sanctimonious twaddle.

It should never be forgotten that individual and self-organized charitable donation internally and internationally by Americans dwarfs the total and per-capita grub-O-mint generosity of any other nation in the world. Calling Americans primarily self-interested and greedy is not only inaccurate, it is the most outrageous falsehood, 180° opposed to the facts. (To forestall the knee-jerk reaction that this is merely jingoism, be it noted that I am Canadian, and happen to know that American per-capita giving is DOUBLE Canadians’, including all our off-loaded grub-O-mint giveaways at all levels.)