Adolfo – You are right that I can’t understand why someone would try hard to get more once they have a few million dollars or so – it’s enough to last a lifetime. I can sort of understand the wish to have people do what you say, but if you can’t get people to do what you think is best by asking them and discussing the reasons, maybe you’ve got it wrong and need to re-think what you’re asking.
Customs and moralities vary around the world, so things that are against the morality I grew up with may be acceptable or praised in other cultures – for example the Japanese custom of lying for your boss or the Indian custom of never admitting you can’t do a particular thing your boss wants done. First time you come across such things it’s difficult, but once you know the customs you can work with them.
One shaded insult I use is “they had good intentions” when something goes severely pear-shaped. The Law of Unintended Consequences nearly always applies. Looking at only the instant monetary profit from some action will mostly lead to such consequences – in the case you pointed out it was a Bad Idea to do any trading with Hitler, but it seems very few people realised it at the time. Today we have Assad in Syria waging war on his people – this also seems like a good person to stop. In preference this would be done by killing the leaders to save a lot more deaths of soldiers following orders – if they don’t do what they’re told they get shot in the back instead. Maybe such atrocities would be somewhat curtailed if the people ordering them knew that they were risking their own lives, and the technology is now around to make it happen. It could become really dangerous being a leader of a rogue state.
