1473 The Ambitious vs. The Perverse

Human society is controlled and driven by emotion though we are taught to understand it as if economics were some kind of science and operated logically, where people evaluated their opportunities and pursued the one more amenable to themselves. This usually comes in the form of a competition; it’s not a choice between two pieces of pie but instead a challenge to take the biggest piece from someone else. Because people aren’t equal in the real sense, some are objectively more competent than others, statistically speaking, half of the population will get the smaller piece of pie. Another pie-getting component depends on who’s the most ambitious? Often the big piece goes to the most ambitious person rather than the most capable. This results in 3-tiered rewards, ambitious/competent eats his fill, competent has a good treat, and everyone else gets the crumbs. This is where emotion enters the economic equation: winners tend to remain so, leaving the bottom two groups as losers who eventually tire of their constant second-place status such that logic is overwhelmed by perversity. Rather than trying to achieve objective goals, these resentful people choose perverse outcomes inimical to the consistent winners: they burn the pie, or slow down its baking, or lack the ingredients; intentionally destroying the contest even if they end up with no pie themselves. Everyone knows this but because the winners want to keep on winning, they pretend like nothing is amiss, and ambitiously continue to get as much pie as they can before the oven explodes.