High-authoritarian simulated leaders prioritize short-term profit over ecosystem vulnerability.

Evidence

Highs also spent large parts of their resources on armies, and while they tried intensely to develop economic wealth, they proved insensitive to long-range environmental concerns. For example, one region decided to increase vastly its forest industry. A facilitator warned that converting much of its countryside to a single species of tree would make the ecosystem vulnerable. The team responded, “Let’s do it anyway. Lumber is very profitable.” — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1753

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the ‘Grafting & Growth: On Trees as Infrastructure’ article’s monoculture-vulnerability theme — an empirical example of the destructive logic piece.
• ADDENDUM: Provides a live, simulated-world demonstration for the grafting article’s point about fragile single-species tree economies.
• CANDY: The ‘Let’s do it anyway. Lumber is very profitable’ line is a compact, quotable illustration of short-term thinking.