Yin and Yang in Economics

Selfishness or selflessness.  People who are to selfish sometimes create great things, but more often create misery and conflict.  People who are selfless can create harmony and cooperative action, but usually in the end get trampled by the selfish.

The dichotomy is a function, probably, of the chemistry of our brain.  We have a selflessness brain neurotransmitter (Oxytocin) and we have a bunch of neurotransmitters that focus on our own well-being, so we can survive in a the natural world where it is often literally kill or be killed.  Some people have lots of Oxytocin, the selflessness neurotransmitter, some people don't have very much of it.

There is no question what nuerotransmitter Jesus sought to emphasize, but Jesus wasn't talking economics.

Economic theories tend to be very bad at harmonizing this dichotomy in our own brain chemistry.  The result is the theories tend to focus on one way of thinking as bad, and the other as good.  Capitalism v. Socialism.  Competition is the natural order, cooperation is unnatural v.cooperation is the natural order, competion is unnatural.

In politics, unfortunately, the loudest voices come from the folks at the two ends of the spectrum.  The people whose nuerotransmitter mix is most unbalanced tend to be adament that only one way can be right.  They are the ones who most directly threaten the careers of politicians, so they cultivate disproportionate influence for their point of view.  Unfortunately for the cooperative folk, the competitors tend to have more money.

If those who recognize the value of both influences in shaping our government policies stop paying attention government becomes a tug of war between to two extremes, where the best possible solution to a problem is not even on the table.  

In theory, in a Democracy, the Yin balances the Yang.  It does work, sort of.  But if the folks in the middle ground became more conciously aware of the advantages and disadvantages of these two capabilities in our thought we could have an economy, and a society, that was a lot more stable, productive and harmonious.