Quote of the Day: choosing b/w the whole and the part

[timelets]

Ray Dalio (CEO of Bridgewater) on Donald Trump's policies:

From the higher-level perspective, when faced with the choices between what's good for the whole and what's good for the part, and between harmony and conflict, he has a strong tendency to choose the part and conflict. By “the whole,” I mean the whole ecosystem, the whole world community, and whole of the US, and by “the part,” I mean the part of the US that he is presumably trying to help.

It seems to me people who are trying to figure out whether or not to support him are faced with three big questions: 1) what exactly is the part he’s trying to optimize for (e.g., American manufacturing workers) and at the expense of whom, 2) am I more aligned with that part he is trying to protect (e.g., American manufacturing workers) or more aligned with those who will lose out (e.g., immigrants, those who will lose benefits from his budget changes), and 3) will his path of conflict rather than cooperation be effective or harmful? Sometimes conflict produces better results and sometimes it produces worse results for the people who are pursuing it to get what they want.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/couple-thoughts-ray-dalio