You are mixing a few concepts, so I will parse them a bit. 

We are all greedy, and that's okay - but some are ruthless and illogical.  Some have no other goal than to "grow" there operation - even though the production base is near zero sum over decades.  

Maximizing net present value  (extending your personal career and/or the career of those who follow) falls within the domain of microeconomics.   There are a lot of assumptions that go into discounted cash flow analysis, most of the wrong, but all of them useful.  These decision go into our annual planning, and factor into capital and debt management. 

The second portion lies in game theory: which 'set' of strategies is most likely to produce a winning cash flow  (either just yours or the entire world economies).  Playing the "traditionalist" hand may work well in some parts, not so well in others.  In my opinion, we should be more open to talking about the rules of the game.  Given we don't live forever, and there are multi-year improvements that must be made - the game is ACTUALLY cooperative, non-zero sum, asymmetric, and infinitely long. 

I will leave by saying - no player ever survives if they are fail to adopt and progress.  Historically, changes of behaviors in a population are by attrition or death - but it doesn't have to be that way.