Every time I check my email, I get pitched some other scam. It gets tiresome, man. I realize from basic game theory that the US government is motivated to get more incoming tax revenue because it owes a fairly significant amount to bond holders. As such, the peoples’ government (quote unquote) is not incentivized to investigate or curtail scams because the scams are substantial contributors to economic activity and the tax base. After all, it’s quite reasonable to think a motivated party would deceive individual market participants yet not tax bodies. As such, scams comprising more of the economy isn’t necessarily a problem for governments …. at first.
You see, scams start out innocuous/lucrative but get pretty played out pretty quickly. An individual has limited motivation to participate in a scam. Particularly if the user’s engagement is basically the result of companies exploiting customer physical weaknesses — ie engaging and fostering addiction. Companies can doubtlessly do that for a while, but as the behaviors they find lucrative cause problems in the communities where they live, they attract scrutiny from many outsiders, and the pressure to avoid the behavior at issue becomes harder to avoid.
When I reflect on this (sorry state of affairs), this seems quite obvious, yet I see companies offering products/services that are inherently deceptive. I think to myself, “Why would someone (the company) even make that product? They have to realize it’s headed for a dead-end.” When I think about that, I have to conclude that the “entrepreneurs” involved are fucking idiots, too. Not only are they actively degrading the lives of others during the course of business. In addition to that, they seem to lack the basic planning skills required to develop the idea at issue.
When I think about all of that, part of me is terrified that I’m surrounded by idiots, but what’s more than that is it seems I’m surrounded by short-term thinkers, developing scams then thinking those are legitimate businesses. I am not like an altruistic person, but I see scams and deceptions as silly wastes of times. Firstly, it’s not a sustainable model. Secondly, you don’t want to be remembered for deception — and let’s say stories can be told later, at which point your name and reputation can be posthumously rehabilitated. Doesn’t that seem like an awful lot of work??? You’re alive now so why not just be the type of person you’d wish to be remembered as?