dexy

I think you misunderstood the game theory terminology a bit: "rational" choice IS the selfish one - the one where player benefits most, not caring for the others. "Irrational" is the other one, sacrificing your reward for the benefit of others. Leaving that aside, I see your point - people don't behave as game theory suggests to be optimal for all of them (landowners are "all of them" here). True. But what is the cause of that, and how do they behave? You say next: But this must be "robots that are programmed to play for the greater good (of all landowners)". It would be as easy to program robots to behave differently, taking into account self interest vs. common one differently, knowing that other robots are programmed the same way. Now comes the killer: humans are almost as programmable as robots. How? Through culture. Latest research shows that the exact same game played in different cultures gives totally different outcomes. This comes as a shock to any westerner that is so sure about existence of human "free will" (built into his DNA) that he doesn't even consider where it originated from. Ironically, from the western culture, yes. So what "The Empire" needs to do first is create a specific culture that makes landowners take choices that benefit other landowners together (but against the good of other citizens). Then proceed with cartel creation. Might seem very difficult to do when I put it this way, but then again, how did we end up in this society with states? Who created them? Big bang? God?