Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Evolution isn't dog eat dog.

Evolution is not dog eat dog, in fact, if you take a look at actual dogs you will notice that they are a pack species. They hunt in groups. They work together to the betterment of all and the betterment of each.

It is in the gene's best interests to support other members of the same species and quite likely the same family which should also share the same gene which encourages cooperation.

Economics are by and large evolutionary. A good idea is duplicated, and whatever makes the most money is the most likely to spread. Good ideas are spread, better services take over, etc. However, a lot of capitalism is the idea that prices and services will always be optimized for the consumer. However, that's not true. The prices and services will always be optimized toward profit. If that means colluding, it means colluding. If that means fixing prices to aid a political party in an attempt to prevent a reduction in profit, that is what it means. Lobbyists are a logical consequence and an impressive adaptation. To take control of the built in power structure is to control one's environment, an ability which in the terms of biological evolution, is nearly impossible to match.

The consumer isn't always right. The consumer is the enemy. The consumer is prey. However, it is in the best interest of the organism to convey this message, much as it is in the best interests of butterflies to, especially if tasty, to convey a message of poison. The general capitalistic idea is that optimally all the companies cannot collude with each other and thus, like the traveler's dilemma, progress toward the lowest possible value. And, much like the traveler's dilemma it just doesn't work in practice. One doesn't sacrifice potential wealth for the sake of rationality. It make look like it should be the optimal solution to deprive yourself of wealth (if you setup economies like giant traveler's dilemmas) but evolution isn't fooled.

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