You’re just moving the goalposts. The problem is that there are many, many high status people who cannot or do not behave like this, and there are many low-status people who can and do behave like this.
The main problem is that “high-status” does not carve out the space you are describing. It describes someone with a lot of power. This is purely situational and may or may not coincide with high status. The only electrician in a small town can get away with saying or doing all kinds of things that other people can’t. Likewise the African strongman, or the schoolteacher, or the government bureaucrat. Power is the determinant here, not status. Selfishness signals power, which may or may not signal status.
The other problem is that, once someone’s status is low enough, their behaviour may be incapable of influencing it, so they may behave selfishly because they have basically nothing to lose.
At this point, I’d also throw in that you really haven’t defined what you mean by “selfish” and what constitutes “getting away with it,” both of which would probably help. This whole post is riddled with vagueness, and I think that vagueness helps to either mask the lack of a point, or to distract from an actual good point you have not made.
You’re just moving the goalposts. The problem is that there are many, many high status people who cannot or do not behave like this, and there are many low-status people who can and do behave like this.
The main problem is that “high-status” does not carve out the space you are describing. It describes someone with a lot of power. This is purely situational and may or may not coincide with high status. The only electrician in a small town can get away with saying or doing all kinds of things that other people can’t. Likewise the African strongman, or the schoolteacher, or the government bureaucrat. Power is the determinant here, not status. Selfishness signals power, which may or may not signal status.
The other problem is that, once someone’s status is low enough, their behaviour may be incapable of influencing it, so they may behave selfishly because they have basically nothing to lose.
At this point, I’d also throw in that you really haven’t defined what you mean by “selfish” and what constitutes “getting away with it,” both of which would probably help. This whole post is riddled with vagueness, and I think that vagueness helps to either mask the lack of a point, or to distract from an actual good point you have not made.