I worked for Microsoft for a short period of time and looking back on it I'm a bit embarrassed about how quickly I became a Microsoft fanboy. I started using Bing as my default search engine and bought some stock (did pretty good on that at least). It was a temp job, but they teased us with longer term employment with lines like "every day is a job interview." After two months they laid off the entire team anyway once the job was done (it was 3D editing for their 3D maps project).

The point of sharing this is to illustrate how a person's loyalties are driven by incentives. I thought I could have a future there and felt that my success was tied to the company's success, so I was willing to do things voluntarily to promote the company. I wasn't as aware of how shitty their business practices were then, but I had no love for them prior to my employment either.

Nowadays I use this lesson when considering the various information sources I consume and when I get into discussions with people online. According to a quick Google search the government employs nearly 20 million people in the US, plus another 2.25 million at the state and local level, and if they are anything like me they are going to have more favorable opinions if the govt because that is how their bread is buttered, and they are incentivized to defend the govt because if this.

I think most people underestimate the power of incentives in driving human behavior. If #Bitcoin is a threat to the power that govts hold then there is an army of people incentivized to oppose it. Thank goodness it's designed in a way that they can't actually stop it and all they can do is bitch about it online.