Yes, pretty much. Our priorities are messed up, by design and systemically enforced by the constructs we built.
Here is what our systems should enforce:
Trust should yield merit should yield money:
The trust that you promise to build something of renewable value for society that establishes your authentic merit on the subject that subsequently makes money as the promise proves to hold true.
We have turned those priorities on its head with the improper definition and implementation of freedom and the voodoo of economics in tow:
Money now claims merit unworthy of the presumption of trust:
Our assessment of merit is no longer based on trust of authentic societal value, but based on how you can make money talk. Were are fooled all the time by people who have acquired money (by robbing the innocent’s bank), and then are assigned the presumption of merit from the unverifiable trust.
But we cannot blame participants for the lack of pertinent rules to protect societal interests and values. We have failed to establish the constructs that define the systems to induce the proper behavior. Freedom without paradoxical rules of freedom, just like in a game of sports, will run amok. Read The Paradox of Freedom.
Don’t hate the players, hate the game.