Altruism, neuroscience and Medicare

I was struck by two op-ed pieces in the New York Times today, the first of which entitled "Nice Guys Finish First," is about how cooperation and altruism are hard-wired into human beings; we've evolved a sense of self that is greater than just the individual.  As the author, David Brooks, puts it, "serving others may produce the same sort of pleasure as gratifying a personal desire."  


This isn't a new revelation, but it's certainly true and it ties in directly to the next article which unlike Brook's piece was overtly political.  "The Need for Greed" by Timothy Egan details exactly how Paul-Ryan-no-care was designed to win the support of seniors by allowing them to stay in the Medicare program as it exists while ensuring that younger generations would get none of the benefits.  Seniors, Ryan believed, would support the plan because it didn't affect their benefits. Ryan and the Republicans are counting on greedy seniors to vote in their own self-interest and elect Republicans.  

Enter altruism.  As both Brooks and Egan point out, people can be expected to behave or vote in their own-self interest, but that term is a bit broader than the traditional "me."  Any given person's self-interest includes family members, friends and often the broader community.  In addition to being a plan that will end Medicare (even Newt Gingrich called it right-wing social engineering), Paul-Ryan-no-care isn't even politically viable.  Americans - seniors in particular, in fact the very people Ryan thought wouldn't be opposed since they weren't affected - have stood up for their own self-interest: the American community. 

Paul-Ryan-no-care, right-wing social engineering is bad for America.  As I've said in previous posts, the Republican plan to lower the deficit is laudatory in that it proposes tough steps.  But those tough steps are also bad ones.  And Americans, even those who were supposed to act selfishly, acknowledge that. America is better off for the evolved sense of communal self that human beings share.  As long as Republicans act in opposition to that by trying to deny people security and well-being, they will fail.