Altruism/Greed Ratio

Tell me what you think of this:

Society is, as a vast generalization, composed of altruistic citizens and greedy citizens. The ratio between the two fluctuates as a society becomes vastly greedy, and then demands reform due to failure. If a society becomes vastly altruistic, then it no longer benefits the individual to do the same; greed among charity is profitable. As the majority realize this, whether consciously or unconsciously, they shift to greed. Greed among greed fails due to lack of cooperation, a lack of independence from time spent as a parasite, and intense rivalry. Silly analogy perhaps, but it's much like "Friend or Foe": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_or_Foe%3F . Is this perhaps the root of the economic aspect or governing, or am I just generalizing too much?

Yeah, but greed is one of those pictures that are hard to unsee.  It's easy to be greedy, it's hard to stop.

Yes, I sort of agree. That's what I was having a hard time imagining:  how the reversion back to altruism goes. Is it done for the sake of the community, or is it simply done out of greed, remembering the good ol' times feeding off the charity of others?

I propose greed be used for altruism, that is, people are openly greedy, and this force of greed is used for altruistic ends.  Say I start a fast food chain with the purpose of making billions of dollars quickly, and then a good portion of that is used for altruism.  A sort of ethical greed where instead of good purpose with bad results, it's bad purpose with good results.

>>4
Sure.  Go for it.  Lead by example.

I need money first.

>>4
You're thinking of capitalism. The problem with this, though, is, besides the semantic aspect (altruism can't be rooted in greed), that greed never stops there. Perhaps isolated examples exist wherein a person comes to a position of power through personal want, and then performs charitable acts, whether they be altruistic or not. This only spurs on the greed of others though. By creating more charity, you create the capacity for more parasites to make a living off said charity. It's sort of a supply-demand circumstance. Overall, though, I suppose that's why capitalism is probably the most stable form of economy: it sort of goes back and forth between massively greedy and altruistic reform in lesser and lesser degrees. It even shows in history fairly clearly; the industrial revolution led to massive reforms, then slowly the reforms died down until the depressions; wherein altruistic reforms attempted socialism but failed, and now here we are, with a socialist president after years of perceived greed causing a recession.