Scam: "a dishonest scheme; a fraud; a swindle"
I would argue, outside of our closest relationships, the majority of people are attempting to, or engaging in some kind of scamming behavior in at least half of their interactions.
At this point, 2023 worldwide, fear and distrust are table stakes for social interaction
Well, with exception of those which need to be shot with Hanlon's handgun[0]. There's surprisingly many of those, and not where people would suspect (e.g. I see it more often interacting with small businesses than with larger ones) - but in most interactions with others, I find it best to not reach for the handgun until it's clear it's needed.
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[0] - "Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by systemic incentives promoting malice." -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21691282
This is excellent advice for both metaphorical and literal handguns.
Large corporations where all human values are made illegal are quite shining examples how humans should operate in our system. This is sadly quite common in non-profits too.
I agree with this, but there are situations where because of obvious incentives you cannot make this assumption. Car salesman treating me like his best friend? I wonder why?
But that the majority must still behave rightly paranoid that it is the majority in order to protect themselves from a really pretty small minority.
This relates to a piece of advice I gave my children: most people are fundamentally good and decent. A small percentage are not. The problem is that you can't tell which is which just by looking at them.
Yes well the whole point is to make things better - not just keep them the same
However it is unquestionable that the default mode for humans in America to operate is out of fear - and the opposite is by exception
Even in human interaction amongst your closest friends and family, they only interact with you for their own benefit - that just happens to be in pursuit of the endorphins/dopamine gained when they spend time with the people they share memories with, and it happens to be reciprocal.
I think the numbers are way lower, but it is an old, archaic idea, you do good for your tribe/family - by taking from anywhere outside of the tribe. Stealing from the tribe is very bad and might get you killed. Stealing from another tribe however is not stealing, but reputable work, as long as there are no established friendly relations to that tribe. Many people indeed operate with this mindset (consciously or not)
But all in all I would rather say, that the number of people who consider all of humanity their family, is increasing.