Selfishness is viral

It is very difficult to help others or work to benefit makind because of the self-perpetuating selfishness meme. How can someone survive in a selfish world without being forced to become selfish too? For example a person who wants to make things to help the disabled (I hate that term) will find it extremely difficult to do so, because in order to live money must be charged for those things produced, but few disabled people have money, so paradoxically, prices must be higher in order to make a living from those few items that do sell. Of course making expensive items for people who, on the whole, don't have a lot of money is not a good business plan and is not likely to do well in a dog-eat-dog marketplace.

This produces an effect where the only way those in dire need can be helped is through the government or through the altruism of philanthropists. In a society with a large and wealthy middle class this is less of a problem because the average person who is well-off likes to help others. But in a society deeply divided between the rich and the poor, the government becomes less able to care for those in need and the wealthy become isolated from them and less predisposed to care.