The Quid Pro Quo
Altruism, people doing things out of the kindness of their hearts. It’s a nice thought isn’t it? Well unfortunately, that’s not how the world works. Rarely do people do things out of the kindness of their hearts, there is a quid pro quo. That is, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. It’s an incentive, a bargaining chip used to get what you want.
Now this goes for business, friendships, romantic relationships, all interpersonal dynamics to be quite frank. You need to offer something of value to that other party to exchange for something that you want.
The question then becomes, what is valuable? Well there are a few key points on things that are valuable which are covered in Econ 101. Firstly, there has to be demand for such skill or product, secondly is how much supply of it is available, the less the more valuable.
Another way you can put it is, what do you bring to the table?
Leveraged Economics
Putting this into practice. Take the example of practical professional skills as one such example. In the west, say the US, white collar professional skills are needed and valued, no doubt about it. But such skills are a dime a dozen. (Practically) everyone has an undergraduate degree in one of these professions.
Therefore what you have to offer is not valuable. But if you go to a wild, untested, untapped frontier market such as where I am right now in Freetown, your status suddenly jumps leaps and bounds upward. When what you have to offer becomes scarce, it becomes valuable as you have entered an unlevel playing field.
And that means an opportunity to milk your privileges.
And that means leverage.
Kingston S. Lim
July 7, 2021
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Kingston S. Lim 
You’re spot on with this post, Kingston. And sadly, it’s a part of human nature to use our leverage. It’s a part of survival. I believe that sometimes we do things out of the kindness of our hearts but that depends on our level of empathy and our relationship with the people we do the kindness for. Thank you for posting.
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Thank you for reading Cherie, and yes we sometimes do do things out of the kindness of our hearts (as I’ve discovered countless times throughout the world), but it’s best not to count on it as that would only lead to heart break
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You’re so welcome. And that’s so true, Kingston. It’s so sad.
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Good deeds may be motivated by a desire to be needed or to reassure ourselves that we are good. Money and power are often our motivations. I agree that we do things for selfish reasons, but what motivates us is far from simple.
Hope you are well, Kingston! ❤
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Yes Cheryl, we are selfish by nature, better to assume selfish motivations then be disappointed by hopes to the contrary.
And I’m well, hope you are too!
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