@aviationdoctor.eth

Two nuances that have to do with people’s awareness and understanding of what is, and what is not, included in their self-interest: - vertically, people aren’t always aware that the common interest is also their self-interest, because there is some time preference or second-order relationship. As a crude example: paying my union dues makes me poorer, which is prima faciae against my self-interest; but it eventually might end up being a net positive for me and my peers in an indirect way. - horizontally (or longitudinally), causing environmental externalities (e.g., releasing GHG) might serve my near-term interests (society subsidizes my polluting behavior at no cost to me), but it’s against the interests of my grandchildren. If I expand my definition of self-interest to include my lineage, I am more prone to adjusting my behavior. A lot of tragedy of the commons paradoxes dissolve once we broaden our notion of self-interest just a bit past the near-term egocentricism

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