glyph42's Journal: Greedy humans are doomed to revolution

I firmly believe that if some hypothetical country in the future had a perfect system of government, one that maximizes everyone's happiness in some reasonable way and simultaneously does not cause any minorities to suffer (including individuals), that is based on firm mathematical foundations, and even includes an easily understood proof of the system's perfection in its constitution, you could still convince the people of the country to change their system by playing to their greed. I believe that a small group of greedy people living in the country could put together a slick package outlining the benifits of some subtle changes, most likely emphasizing some kind of short term gains, and convince the country as a whole to change their perfect system even if it were strictly prohibited in their constitution. That's how confident I am about humanity as a whole. Also, I want my fast car and my posh house to retire early in.