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I'll talk about two things that are in each of us: greed, and cooperation. We need to think about which we want to encourage as a society. Right now, it's greed, and that has serious consequences (e.g. the current economic situation).Our economy is based on greed. People go out, start businesses, and try to make as much profit (revenue-costs) as they can in the short run. We have been trained to think that this is natural, inevitable, and for the best. We have been trained to believe that when everybody is looking out for #1 in the here and now, society as a whole is best off now and in the future. The idea goes back at least to guys like Adam Smith and Bernard Mandeville (18th century philosophers). In the never-ending quest for more profit, businesses don't consider factors like the environment, or the living standards of the workers they hire.
Every day, especially if we are TV watchers, we see lots of advertisements. These ads tell us that we are incomplete, that they way to happiness is through more stuff. But it's a lie: we are not incomplete and the way to happiness is not through more stuff. How does being constantly lied to affect us and lead us astray?
There is another path. Instead of encouraging greed, we could be encouraging cooperation. They are both a part of us. There is nothing utopian about it. As long as we strive to understand our own complexity, we can create an economic order that advances real human needs, not artificial desires.
