Quote Originally Posted by OngBonga View Post
If we lived in a system that punished greed and selfishness, rather than rewarded it, then people wouldn't naturally be greedy and selfish, because they would have learned through childhood and into adulthood that such tendancies are not adventageous.
Just like how society has punished homosexuality and now there are no homosexuals.

You're in luck, the USSR did exactly what you ask for. It didn't pussyfoot around either. It was a purist, an extremist, it punished self-interest so deeply that the driving ethos of the country for half a century revolved about the "collective good."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand everything went to shit. There was no incentive to improve one's lot. Subsequently all lots spoiled. An irony is that the manifest punishment of greed and selfishness inadvertently led to people who were more greedy and selfish than in the freer West. When nobody could get ahead by improving themselves, problems were blamed on unfair treatment, and stewed desires emerged in the dark.

An economist I read tells a story about a handful of friends he has who were raised in communist countries. They're perfectly normal people except that they constantly misrepresent things for their own benefit. For example, when playing volleyball, if there is a dispute on whether the ball is in or out based on how close it landed on the line, the ex-communists invariably rule in their own favor. To economists and probably psychologists, this behavior makes sense since in a communist society, the only way to get ahead is to cheat and obfuscate since it is illegal to get ahead legitimately.