# Fundamental Alignment - Synthesis A By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2026-01-03 Is the dominant profit motive of our time actually neutral with respect to fulfillment? We can hope yes, and in some limited respects, perhaps it is. But there are reasons to suspect that this claim of neutrality is not all that it first appears to be. As it relates to individual managers, subordinates, and organizations, there is likely little significant investment one way or another regarding individual fulfillment. Have it or don’t, if you get the job done, it might capture well the perspective organizations think they have. However, the entire economy is based on consumption, as about 70% of GDP is driven by consumption spending, and much of consumption is based on individual attempts to become whole through accumulation. It is perhaps that fulfilled individuals are both inferior consumers and lack motivation to play the game to climb the corporate ladder any further than they already have. If this is correct, then managers and organizations have a legitimate stake in ensuring that their employees are not fulfilled. There is no conspiracy here. It is almost assuredly not the case that elites are conspiring to keep employees unfulfilled. They don’t have to; society already does this for them. Dissatisfaction abounds. The search for more and better can be never-ending. Maybe this is innate. Our society certainly does a great deal to amplify it. Fundamental alignment mitigates against its more self-destructive tendencies. At a minimum, fundamental alignment holds potential for making these drives less desperate and incoherent. Much depends on what is packed in the term neutral. If neutrality means that the primaries and secondaries involved do not care one way or another, then the issue of fulfillment can likely be categorized as neutral. If neutrality means the system outcome is offsetting, then it certainly is not. As Thoreau wrote in 1854 in his work _Walden_, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” With so much at stake given how much consumption spending contributes to the economy and how much pliable workers contribute to the organization, it is certainly the case that elites benefit substantially from this situation. They might not be culpable in creating this dynamic, but they are certainly guilty of doing nothing to address it. #### Related Items [[Capitalism]] [[Society]] [[Fulfillment]] [[Elites]] [[Paradigms]] [[Motivation]]