Comment by floatrock
7 months ago
Or it's a reflection on is individualism really a thing when everything is actually interconnected?
"The greater good" is a bit abstract, and your framing suggests it's somehow separate from "the people who live there". A different framing of this question is should individuals be able to degrade ecosystem wealth in order to maximize their personal wealth?
This is the climate story in microcosm. We all know burning carbon is against the "greater good", but if we can pretend that our high-energy lifestyle is somehow independent and unconnected to the planetary ecological systems that support us, then of course, why shouldn't I mortgage my descendants' future for some toys today.
> A different framing of this question is should individuals be able to degrade ecosystem wealth in order to maximize their personal wealth?
It's the United States, that's virtually a constitutional right. If your skin color and cultural conformance checks out.
The logic of short-term gain at the expense of long-term viability is the same, just dressed up in different costumes