Comment by api

You just described pretty much all life.

Forests are full of animals that hunt animals, and animals that spend tons of energy evading animals hunting them.

Life is a complex patterning phenomenon that dissipates energy, and as far as we understand it has no goal. Why should we expect complex human living systems to behave fundamentally differently? Individual human beings have goals, but huge collective systems like economies have either no consciousness or a kind of vegetable consciousness similar to a slime mold moving toward nutrients.