The flexibility of your moral compass

I post on behalf of ill siblings.

^Meltdown, sorry for rattling your chain.

   This might be a little distracting from the very good point the cartoon makes, but economics class has some important contributions to make to the arguments about acting in self interest.  In economics class you should have learned that the interests of all can be served best by people acting in their own self interest.  Perhaps it seems counter intuitive to say that, but the math often does show very positive results.
    It is the basic principle behind the law of supply and demand.  The free market finds the price that is best for all concerned in a way no other attempts have been.  It makes sense really.  Only you know what you are willing to pay and only the seller knows what he is willing to accept as payment.  Even when the buyer and seller have doubts themselves how they really feel about the transactions the free market can assist them to make a decision that best suits their needs.
   Of course no market is truly free like the ideal in the math models.  It can be difficult to totally eliminate the coercion inherent in several of life's important decisions.  No one is ever truly "free" to decline purchases of water for example.  In some parts of the world the rain is sufficient, but in most of the world it is not.  Inevitably with "natural" "monopolies" like water and electric power, government must step in to regulate in as much a "reasonable" way as possible.  That usually works by disciplining the management of monopolistic enterprises by enforcing levels comparable to other enterprises that are not monopolistic, such as the profit margin.
   There has been an enormous effort in the last several decades to make the telephone service market as competitive as possible despite the obvious inefficiencies of redundant equipment.  You should rest assured that highly intelligent people have been keeping a careful eye on that.  Some of them are even as smart as I am (pardon the joke).  There are things "we" (including you) can do to keep those companies in line while online.
   There is much more to it than that though.  It is against the nature of most human beings to totally ignore the rest of the world and it's wishes and changing fortunes.  Children must marry from outside the family enterprise.  Then for other reasons there can appear emergencies that require some group or other to consider setting aside their own interests to solve the problem.  So some concern with the interests of others is normal and healthy.

   The problem in the United States today is that too many people with too little sense are attempting to run things.  That can happen when the heart overthrows the mind.  There likely is going to be more trouble than usual until much reordering of private and government control is accomplished and that requires a sort of education that has been sorely lacking lately.

   To me the most important thing is the truth, and that is the highest compliment you could have made.  I suppose it is true in a word, or 485 words.