Human Nature

Human Nature and the Formula with 5 Requirements for Better Governance:

Quality of Governance = P ± V ± E ± T ± A
Quality of Governance = Power ± Virtue ± Education ± Transparency ± Accountability ;
Corruption = Power - Virtue - Education - Transparency - Accountability ;

Most people, naturally, seek security and prosperity with the least amount of effort and pain. There is nothing wrong with that, and most people in most nations are ethical and law abiding (otherwise, we would have wide-spread chaos, war, lawlessness, and societal disorder). But, it is dangerous to ignore this fact of human nature.

At the most basic level, the root cause of the majority of our problems are due to excessive selfishness by some people, and IF their numbers (i.e. the cheaters and parasites) become too great, then societies, organizations, and/or governments FAIL. Some people (i.e. cheaters and parasites) will resort to unethical and/or illegal methods (to varying degrees) for self gain. Therefore, it is important to be able to recognize and identify cheaters and parasites.

GROUP#1 (mostly envy, sloth, and wrath): This group of cheater-parasites are envious and lazy, and they want a nanny-state to take care of them from cradle-to-grave; some politicians easily tap into that laziness and envy, while making them increasingly dependent on the government (which already consists of massive cradle-to-grave government programs, which are usually severely mismanaged: e.g. $70 Billion per year in Medicare fraud; tens of $Trillions borrowed from Social Security; etc.), and creating a sense of entitlement and dependency on government. They do not care about the size of government (despite it already being at nightmare proportions, including the debt ). These cheaters like being rewarded for failure and laziness; and they like being able to disguise their laziness and envy as demands for equality. They believe the myth that many things should be free, and that we can somehow all live at the expense of everyone else. This Group#1 cheaters are useful tools for Group#2 master-cheater-parasites (see below).
GROUP#2 (mostly lust, greed, and wrath): Then there are the master-cheater-parasites, who try to tap into the laziness, envy, jealousy, and hate of others (e.g. cheaters of Group#1). The Group#1 cheaters (see above) are useful tools for the Group#2 cheaters. The Group#2 cheaters (often, politicians and/or extremely wealthy), are the most dangerous, despite their lesser numbers. Their tools are identity politics, fueling racial hatred; religious hatred; discrimination; envy and jealousy; abuse of vast wealth; fear; and/or any other convenient mechanisms to create division, to acquire power, and minimize the ability of a majority to ever exist to hold them accountable. The Group#2 cheaters try to tap into the envy and jealousy of Group#1 cheaters, with promises of free stuff, while fostering an ever-increasing sense of entitlement. Group#2 cheaters then encourage the Group#1 cheaters to attack anyone who doesn't conform, through a myriad of ways to create hate, division, and chaos. Group#2 cheaters often wallow in many manifestations of unchecked greed (e.g. the mortgage crisis from 2005-to-2009 and up to 10,000 foreclosures per day, due to rampant greed at all levels; fake rating agencies; irresponsible banks, governments, and insurance companies; complex derivatives & financial products used to hide debt; bad debts resold all over; lots of blame to go all around for greedy cheaters; etc.). Group#2 cheaters often abuse wealth to influence and control governments to pervert laws to give them advantages for more self gain. Not all wealthy are cheaters, but power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Group#2 Cheaters seek to control everything, but be accountable for nothing.
GROUP#3 (mostly sloth): This group consists mostly of many law-abiding people, but are too lazy and/or too busy trying to provide for themselves and their families, and oblivious or indifferent to understand and do something about GROUP#1 and GROUP#2. While they try to vote for politicians that they believe will uphold their beliefs and values, the politicians often fail to do so, because too many of those politicians have become members of GROUP#2 (see above). Yet, many of those politicians continue to enjoy 80%-to-90% re-election rates. Therefore, GROUP#3 is guilty of laziness and failing to understand that the electorate is culpable too, and they are cheaters by mostly cheating themselves by ignoring and allowing the societal decay caused by GROUP#1 and GROUP#2, and allowing their numbers to grow stronger and more dangerous.
GROUP#4 (the smallest group): This group of people are NOT cheaters, and consists of people who are not perfect, but mostly fair, honest, law-abiding, and also actively work to promote fair and benevolent beliefs and values. They embrace Virtue, Transparency, Accountability, and Education (see formula below). Some are and/or were great leaders. Many have been killed for trying to oppose the oppression and depravity by GROUP#1 and #2, and the negligence of GROUP#3 (see above). So, fear is understandable, but giving into fear will allow the dangers to grow much worse. We should support these people in GROUP#4.

There can sometimes be some overlap between groups, and identifying cheaters is not simple (due to widespread propaganda), until the damage is already done.
Many cheaters are attracted to positions of power and control, and places where they can abuse others for there own gain, and that is where they can also do the most damage.
For example, consider Congress. There is no shortage of good and common-sense ideas to resolve many of our problems, but unfortunately, Congress is where good and common-sense ideas go to die, because too many in Congress (in all political parties) are cheaters. Some politicians have a long history of doing despicable things to acquire more votes, money, power, and control. Yet, due to lack of Education, many are not aware of their history.

Selfishness is the root problem, which encapsulates what many call the seven deadly sins (greed, envy, sloth, pride, lust, wrath, and gluttony).
We have laws, and the U.S. Constitution, but those are not sufficient, without also sufficient levels of the following 5 components (see below) which determine the levels of Responsibility and/or Corruption (to varying degrees), which = Quality of Governance = Q = P ± V ± E ± T ± A
Where:

(1) Power = force required to enforce the laws, discontinue abuse, ensure consequences, punish abusers, and discourage abuse and dishonesty; but unchecked and unbalanced Power without sufficient Education, Transparency, and Accountability breeds Corruption, or worse;
(2) Virtue = the source of moral and ethical judgment; a sense of right and wrong; a sense of caring. A good conscience and Virtue is not merely knowing what is right or wrong, but caring enough to do what is right, and provides the motivation to seek the balance of Education, Transparency, Accountability, and Power required for any successful society, government, or organization;
(3) Education = an understanding of the importance of this simple formula: Q = P ± V ± E ± T ± A, and part of that Education is the firm understanding of human nature, in which humans have a fundamental desire to seek security and prosperity with the least effort and pain, and that some will resort to dishonest, unethical, illegal, or despicable methods for self-gain; it is also the firm understanding that we will get our Education, one way or another (i.e. we only need to choose whether it's the smart way, or the painful way); Now that you understand the truth, share it!
(4) Transparency = visibility and simplification of cleverly over-complicated processes to reveal and identify abusers, reduce opportunities for abuse, and discourage abuse and dishonesty;
(5) Accountability = consequences needed to encourage law enforcement, encourage ethical behavior, and discourage abuse and dishonesty;

More emphasis is needed on the 5 components above, which should be as important (if not more important) than the U.S. Constitution and the Laws of the Land.
Many abuses could be reduced or eliminated with more common-sense Transparency, Accountability, and Education.