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Once it happened, i was standing in an queue. Unfortunately but surprisingly the line was quite a bit long, as it was a working day and people weren't expected in such a large number. Few restless people stood behind me, cursing the government for not making two counters. A old man standing in front of me, gave a sigh of uneasiness and exclaimed," Population in our country is increasing tremendously, resources are getting depleted, at some point of time in future there would huge calamity and we will be left from where we started". This statement caused a serene silence in the crowd. Another old man (probably his friend) replied," People today are becoming selfish, they do not think of other people needs, just want their needs to be satisfied". Listening to this discussion, I thought to myself, are really people becoming selfish? What is the cause for this problem and what could be the remedial measures? Is right education a cause for this behavior? But why we always claim education to be the dominant cause of all major problems like corruption, etc.. Lets us consider for a while that education would be the root cause of this selfish behavior, but then why this happens :
- A person giving donations to various social agencies tries to break traffic rules to reach the destination quickly.
2. A millionaire driving, curses a common man for his urgency to cross the road.
This different behavior to dissimilar situation is caused by lack of that resource to which the person seriously is sensitive.
In economics, you can call the resource to which the person has a very high elasticity, causes this behavior. A person becomes desperate to fulfill one's needs to which one strictly desire, and especially when it is compromised. Keep two extremely thirsty person( who do not know each other) in the middle of the dessert or anywhere, at which there is no source of water, and then let only one to satisfy their thirst, and let them make the choice as to who will do so. No matter how much one is educated, no matter how is one's upbringing, a person will be desperate to satisfy one's need. Some people would argue that, no, the person would allow the other person take it. This is but one's perspective but the real sarcastic truth is the one which the person abides for his own needs. Earlier I gave examples as to how same people behave differently to contrary situations. A person who gives donations to various social organization, does not feel pinched if one is giving some of his money away, as the reduction of that wouldn't cause much damage to one's financial status. But the same person when passes through traffic signal would prefer to break rules( or cross over other ) if one is getting late.
Taking another example in which a millionaire cursing common people for coming in one's way in their urgency to cross over the road and making it difficult for them to drive. Common people are desperate as they hurry up on roads so as to manage their petty profits which solely depends on their little time, to large profits by utilizing every single moment. So their sensitivity for this time is high, so a common man thinks about himself and continue to fulfill his needs irrespective of the distractions to others. But the sensitivity for millionaires is not so high, so one prefers to follow the traffic rule.
Here we can see how a person's elasticity of demand changes one's character. This discussion is not to blame people for their variable faces at different situation, but to let us realize that how this scarcity of resources could cause us to change. Therefore instead of blaming other people for being selfish, we should try to understand other's sensitivity, and then try to judge others. Thus it will help us to reduce hatred among people, as we will be able to understand as to why one behaves selfishly at some point of time.
