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Empathy is great for the society, a burden for the individual. Very empathetic people have a hard time minding their own path in life for they get caught in the suffering of others. Regardless of setbacks and disilussionments, empathetic people feel good when helping others.

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> Empathy is great for the society, a burden for the individual.

But society is good for the individual, so supporting that society that supports them is mutually beneficial.

This chain of comments reminds of what I read in a paper regarding multilevel group selection, namely: "Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups". Though there is a bit of controversy around that if I remember correctly.

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