OSNews

I suggest if we want to understand human nature we take a hard long look at psychology. It shows us how humans behave and why the behave the way they do.

When we think about this on not so much an elementary level we find that most people behave according to their environment and past experiences and knowledge/memories.

Most people will behave in the socially accepted appropriate manner for any situation. If it is socially acceptable to spit on the homeless they will not feel bad or look down on other doing it. They might even partake themselves.

There were experiments that show that over 60% of the population will do what they are told by authority. If that authority is not just and honorable the actions of their population might become just as corrupt. Nazi Germany comes to mind.

There are experiments that show that some people will be cruel to lifeforms they consider lesser than themselves, or have come to believe they belong to a subordinate group, including other humans. Slavery.

All of these actions depend on the environment and beliefs held by their society, not by their education, etc.

Then when we look at social psychology we find that the Fundamental Attribution Error says that society often blames the individual for their situation (such as being homeless/jobless) when society is often responsible for creating the environment that lead them to these problems.

So when we put it all together we find that a lot of these problems are caused by capitalism, or the scarcity of resources, at a fundamental level. And would be remedied by a more equal distribution of wealth and a caring society that would not allow any individual to do without.

I believe that a society can be transformed/constructed into one that encourages everyone to participate and be productive in an entertaining manner. With a little creative thought our jobs could either be automated or made into something that more closely resembles play. And with a little care and compassion for your fellow citizen you will find that there are enough products for everyone to have what they need and most of what they want. IP can be duplicated to an extent with modern technology that everyone can have every song, movie and book ever created.

deoxy.org/endwork.htm

Another thing to consider is how much time (the most valuable limited resource we have) is wasted in lines at the store, making trips to the bank, paying bills, taxes, counting change, waiting in rush hour traffic, etc. All this time, collectively, could be put to more productive means if we did away with currency. But then society might not be as fair as it is today where CEOs are driving around in $100k vehicles and the average physicist or computer scientist has trouble finding a job in their field.