logoalt Hacker News

iamnothereyesterday at 6:03 PM1 replyview on HN

As a class, they have a set of similar incentives (grow/retain resources and power networks) that lead to similar actions (avoid taxation, buy influence, weaken regulators, etc). They may cooperate at times, but they are not a coherent organization with a roster, votes, and leadership.

As individuals, they are dangerous competitors, and they can’t afford to trust each other too much without some kind of mutual leverage. This could be in the form of mutual equity holdings, blackmail, complex arrangements where each party has exposure, whatever. But even then, trust has limits.

There’s no cabal that runs things with rules and elections at this level. It’s all individuals who are immersed in the systems that made them wealthy. Those systems tend to lead to certain behaviors. That’s it.


Replies

danielmarkbruceyesterday at 6:07 PM

You could make this statement about any group at all. And then once you realize people are in multiple groups, the whole thing devolves into chaos.

show 2 replies