Perhaps you did not notice in my post, but my explanation was Not Machiavellian (or Gorish).
Perhaps you did not notice in my post (or chose not to) that the life around us proceeds largely by the rules stated by Machiavelli - that's why all these rendells and others grab and get all they could get away with. Indeed, it is a standard conservative position to believe that everyone is, or would like to be, a rendell and then try to organize the life in such a way as to limit their appetites. If people were angels [per Federalist papers], no government and no rendell would be either necessary or even possible.