If the intent is to have an open conversation, here goes my view:

Being selfish is an inherent nature of a living being. You wouldn’t live if you weren’t selfish. Sure the degree of selfishness matters and this is probably what you meant, but to fix our issues by trying to cure our selfishness is an impossible task.

Give me an example of a developed country and I will show you a country that was built on selfish, corrupt leaders. The railways, roads built in US were possible because of the selfish act of then selfish (and highly corrupt from todays’ standard) businessmen such as Carnegie, Stanford, Rockefeller, JP Morgan etc.

So what is the solution?

To have a carefully drafted book of law, also called constitution and to have checks and balances (like 3 branches in the US) to ensure power is not exercised to only one’s benefit. To enforce this, we need a good judiciary/legal and law-enforcement program.

Before I go too much on how to get things right, I want to reiterate my point that hoping people become unselfish and patriot is not the way to go at this critical juncture of our country.