Empathy doesn't scale
Sep 29, 2022
Here in Berkeley, I notice that a lot of the most successful companies here are small and even worker-owned cooperatives. Acme bread, Cheeseboard, BSC, etc. are all iconic institutions of Berkeley. A large part of that is caused by the culture and vibe of here, which I can’t discount, but regardless it appears to me that it is in fact possible to create small to medium size companies that rely on empathy for success.
There are some obvious elements in which a cooperative governance is better than a top-down one. Each member of a cooperative feels taken care of. The pay structure is generally transparent. Workers succeed together, fail together. There are no executives that earn millions of dollars with employees that earn minimum wage.
There are clear drawbacks as well. There’s a higher risk for ambiguity in structure and ownership, which can lead to a drop in productivity. An excellent individual may have less leverage over the rest of the organization. A system like this also completely ceases to function if empathy isn’t present.
I do think there is an argument to the fact that cooperatives and smaller companies in general create ‘better’ products. But more importantly, these companies seem like places I would want to work. The nature of “work” is very different, and as I imagine, far more fulfilling. If you really want to tie it back to productivity, hiring is hard, and such a workplace attracts different kinds of individuals.
Empathy doesn’t scale. It’s obvious to me, and it’s obvious to you. The amount of fucks one can give is a hopelessly contested resource. Empathy among friends and family is already precious. By the time we get to groups in the tens of thousands, it almost doesn’t exist.
This is why capitalism works so well. It doesn’t rely on empathy among fellow human beings to create a relatively efficient economic system, unlike a system of altruism. Altruism has worked fine in small groups, but it just doesn’t work today with billions of people working together in a global economic system, or so we think.
But a system without a need for empathy will eventually result in the degradation or removal of a vestigial social institution.
Work has been characterized as a materialistic free-for-all, a simple exchange of labor for capital. So many a times you hear (especially in the tech industry) that you have no responsibilities to your employer, to jump ship when the time is right, and that the employer gives no fucks about you. This is presented as matter of fact, is often accurate, but we rarely question whether or not that has to or should be the case. For me at least, I would like another alternative.
I want to participate in transactions that fulfill the spirit of trade – good for you, good for me. A trade with winners and losers are not trades at all, but exploitation. Even if a system of self-interests manages to create a balance between two parties such as employer and employee, that doesn’t sit right with me. I believe I’m always in it to create more value, not to play a zero-sum game. And to take it a bit further, I believe that most people feel the same, at least intuitively. Otherwise, why would it be necessary for people to keep reminding others that loyalty for your employer doesn’t matter? Such self-interested behavior is distinctly counter-intuitive and unnatural.
A naive opinion: the current economic system functions, but it certainly doesn’t feel optimal. As a society, we are productive enough such that we can guarantee that everybody has their basic needs met. The fact that this isn’t happening implies exploitation. For me, this isn’t necessarily about unequal opportunities, privilege, or discrimination – it’s the result of a system that lacks empathy.
The many steps of abstraction, a practically infinitely complicated mesh of transactions hides the fact that this exploitation is going on, but it is. And such abstraction encourages the diffusion of blame, and we end up as an entire society held unaccountable.
If you really think about it, the measured effect of owning capital is not so different from owning a slave. Slave owners owns the source of labor, or slaves. With capitalism, owners own capital, which accrues more capital, which can be converted to labor. Ultimately, individuals can command “free” labor.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not drawing a moral equivalency between slave owners and capitalists. Or maybe I am, because I don’t really blame slave owners. Just like how we are a part of a system that is hard to refute, slave owners were too. And anyways, they’re long dead. Their statute of limitations have long passed, and at the very least it is not my position or my desire to pass a value judgment on their lives.
So ultimately, what do I want? Honestly, I don’t really know, but here’s some thoughts about what I’m going to do to try to improve:
First, I naively suggest that we foster empathy by building systems which have proven to work – smaller systems. Even better, cooperatives. Capitalism will be here for the foreseeable future, because empathy doesn’t scale. But in smaller groups, we can create systems designed for people.
Second, be cognizant of your exploitation. Be wary of free wins. Creating win-win situations require a lot of work, and there is simply no shortcut to these value producing endeavors. Easy, free wins, if such things exist, likely means I have exploited others. Suppose I “earn” 6 million dollars through cryptos. Frankly, you haven’t done shit for society. On the other hand, I have gained capital that by itself is conservatively capable of generating 100,000$ a year, which is more than the median household income. Again, there is a system of abstraction at play, but that amount of money is equivalent to owning the labor of a slave. Even worse, because I have taken 6 million dollars and have generated little to nothing for society, I have effectively taken 6 million dollars away from the “system”, but really just from people.
Third, focus on derivatives. I know for a fact I won’t change the world. The world is just too big. But we are given choices, both small and big. I don’t know if I would be faithful to my values every time, but I’m going to try. Dave Chappelle walked away from 50 million dollars. Top Dog didn’t kill Ducky.
Now, I haven’t worked much in my life. For the little I did, it’s hard to say that it is representative of society. I also have been subject to an abundance of privilege, and a fair amount of attempts to “game the system”. That’s to say, take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt. I’m well aware it might be overly naive, but I can’t help but observe what I observe and feel what I feel.