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Comment by DoreenMichele

Before we reliably had money, we had barter and "mutual aid." Now, some people think you just pay for stuff with money and if someone is "nice" to you, you don't "owe" them anything.

A lot of people no longer seem to understand the implicit social contract behind such interactions and it can go bad places.

From religion to community development work to politics, there have been myriad attempts to educate people that if you don't understand that you are one figure in a larger equation where 1+1=3, then you are probably messing things up because that "3" isn't supposed to belong entirely to you as an individual and when other people get tired of being shafted, there will eventually be consequences.

You may be able to get away with claiming 1.75 of it and giving them 1.25 of it for a long damn time but if it becomes clear to them that all interactions between you and them benefit you at their expense, well, count on them eventually not being cool with that. (No, you don't get to keep shafting them and expecting something for nothing indefinitely, not even if you brainwash them into believing that being your victim is "The Christian thing to do" or some nonsense. If nothing else, it will eventually kill them, so this is simply not a sustainable model long-term.)

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