I am going to vent a little bit. The simple fact is that you can trust selfish people. They reliably do what is in their self interest, and to motivate them all you have to do is show them how you can benefit them. If you yourself benefit as well, that is just a part of the deal. This is how honest, good business gets done. I want something; you want something; let’s make a deal.
The people who infuriate me are egotists, those who would rather cut off their nose to spite their face. They only feel they are advancing their self interest by preventing you from advancing yours. They are quite happy with zero sum or even negative sum games–in which both parties lose–provided only that they fare BETTER THAN YOU.
Concrete example: I will shortly be proposing a deal in which I make $2, and someone else makes $1 for every three dollar increase in price. Since this benefits me, it will happen much more reliably than the current arrangement, in which for every $4 increase, they get $3 and I get $1. Since price can determine whether a sale is won or lost, it little behooves me to increase prices for such a small benefit, so I don’t do it. I charge as little as I can.
I expect this proposal to be rejected, even though I can plainly show the clear benefits that will accrue, for the simple reason that I benefit more than them, on paper. This is egotism. This is not rational business.
The same basic process is in play with Socialists and tax increases for “the rich”. If I tell them that they get $1 for every $2 the rich get, they will be outraged. If I tell them that the rich lose $2 for every $1 lost by everyone else, they find this acceptable. They ignore the fact that incomes are decreasing, and that for every rich person worth twice some other person, it will run out for the less wealth person FIRST, meaning that that person was disproportionately HURT.
I hate egotists. You won’t hear me say that often, but I am too tired to sugar coat it. It is a form of power relationship, and as such morally wrong according to my own beliefs. And to be clear, morally wrong means stupid and counterproductive according to any rational understanding of appropriate, helpful, desirable uses of human life and energy.