Why doesn't selfless sell in America?

[Democrats Ramshield]

(Cross posted by author from the Daily Kos)

(Written by an American expat living in the European Union) As an MBA in marketing I have developed this eccentric habit of watching international ads and I have discovered something, the rest of the world sells things differently to their people than we do. I call them selfless ads which don't sell anything in America according to Madison Avenue. So it is I stumbled across a selfless ad in Thailand made by a life insurance company. Now doubtlessly some troll will say I am trying to hawk Thai life insurance at the Kos. In fact that could only be the case if you want to move to Asia, as that company doesn't even do business in the US. But dealing with trolls isn't the point in this diary. My question is why doesn't selfless sell in America? Why have we in America become so different that we have been conned into believing self before service and prostrating ourselves before the altar of Wall Streeters.

Please click on the link below to continue reading this article and watch the short video. Thank you.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/12/1291453/-Why-doesn-t-selfless-sell-in-America

[Shandris]

1. Because selfless doesn't feed the myth of the immortal lone wolf.

In a world of lone wolves, you not only don't want to help, you can't afford to help because A) it shows weakness in yourself and B) it helps weakness to survive in others. Weakness that other wolves will feed on. America wasn't built on the myth of The Stronger We All Are, it was built on the myth of Rugged Screw-You-I-Got-Mine. Get it straight!

(Beautiful ad! Thank you so much for sharing that. Also, on the off-chance it gets overlooked, sarcasm is intended in the main message!)

[el_bryanto]

2. we don't really have a sense of community

We used to more than we do now - when you watch those old 1950s education films (on rifftrax or something) there's a lot to laugh at, but there's also a sense that we are all in it together (of course the society at that time was horribly racist and misogynist, I'm not ignoring that).

Bryant

[Blue_Tires]

3. Because, to use that uniquely American expression:

"Selflessness is for wussies"

[Brigid]

5. I have a better one:

"Greed is good."

[The Wielding Truth]

4. "Believe in Good!"

[enigmatic]

6. Because in the overriding view by those w/ the power and/or money since at least 1980

When both Reagan and the Moral Majority came to power is that empathy is a weakness, not a virtue.