This is generally true, but also false in many cases. Just because there is some tangible "payoff" for helping someone, doesn't mean that's why the helper does it. It's more a matter of the helper's state of mind. For example, I of course do have a financial stake in writing this comment and sharing my thoughts with you because I own this forum and it is a business asset. But that isn't the thing that motivated me to actually answer your question. My motivation in this case came from a genuine desire to help out without needing anything back from you in return. Of course that doesn't mean I'm selfless. It just means that people can be generous simply to be generous because generosity makes people feel good in and of itself. Folks on the Moderation team are doing some thankless work to run this forum, and many of them volunteered simply because they want to give something back to the community because it makes them feel good.
One of the struggles that humanity faces is: How do we survive and thrive as individual selves AND also as a community of selves?
This is perhaps the single biggest force shaping human activity on the planet today.
If you've studied the Graves or Spiral Dynamics model, this is basically what its describing. It show you how the psyche attempts to resolve this question at various stages of its development.
As the psyche becomes more self-aware, it starts to become more and more sensitive to the genuine needs of others. As the ego dissolves, space is created for genuine connection and, dare I say, LOVE.
But yes, at a practical level, as long as you're a human being, you have to still look out for your own survival. But the good news is, you can dramatically decrease the harmful fallout from your self-survival process and you can become a powerful force for selflessness at the highest Graves stages.

@LucyKid You cannot get answers to these questions from people. You must do the inquiry work.
Awaken to what you are. Then see what questions remain.
Your dog is you.

I guess Chinese people prefer whites. I guess Indians, prefer whites, I guess Italians prefer whites. I guess rich Bionce prefers whites. I guess rich Kardashians prefer whites, I guess rich Opera prefer whites. I guess all the white money gawking women who drool over basketball and football players and rappers prefer whites, I guess I could go on to Infinity and you'll just come back at me with some philosophical bullshit. I guess that's why white men have made up the majority of my escorting jobs over the years, it's because they preferred white women and why some of them wanted me to act as their gf and roll play because they preferred white women, and because they weren't worried about what their neighbors might think if they took home a black girl. I'm not saying here that they preferred one over the other but that people will pretend in public but behind floors secretly prefer something else but don't choose it because of what they think people might think about them. There's nothing special about ones race, were just conditioned to choose what we choose. Don't kid yourself, everything you think you know about life is backwards. All your beliefs are constructions and are things your mind concocted up because of repetitious thoughts.
You have the right to believe what you want to believe, more power to them. I don't need to intervene into your world, I'll just stay over here in mine and allow you to explore Infinity how you choose.

No.
These days I don't mind paying. I used to be cheaper.

@Leo Gura Had you made a study on No-Fap? I know you’ve said in the past it doesn’t matter if you masturbate a lot or not. But had you tried the experiment for like a month? For some reason I attract more people when I’m in retention (even if is just 2 weeks). 

Of course life is unfair. Some children are born crippled. It's better to face that head-on rather than living in a fantasy.
This is all part of the process of accepting the truth of what you are. You are who you are. Not a fantasy of who'd wish you were. Accept yourself FULLY, this is key.
And while you're at it, accept that women are how they are and men are how they are, not how you wish they were.
There is way too much fantasy when it comes to dating. That's what this whole thread is about. Fantasies getting crushed by the weight of reality.

No. That's not it.
Looks matter to women. Stop with the rationalizations.

I'm not saying the opposite. I told you that value is one lens and that you don't wanna get stuck looking at things from only one lens.
Generally speaking if a girl has more value you will need more value to attract and keep her. This is true, but it's just one general factor. Don't get fixated on it.
That's nice of you to say, but I have data on how much sexual attention I get from girls vs other guys. This isn't a subjective matter. Just cause you like me doesn't change that. Girls prefer some guys over others. I am not gonna bullshit myself about that.

Survival

Focus on what you want, not what you don't want.
Do you want a quality gf? Then go find her. Forget your lame ass friends.
Very important that you drop that. Stop carring if any girl rejects you. Means zero. Don't even think about it. Think about something else instead.
Okay. At least for now.
It depends. Sometimes it is helpful to have a deluded positive opinion of yourself. But in the long-term you should strive for accuracy over hope and cope.
You can always just genuinely ask yourself: How can I make my perception of myself more accurate and realistic?

Obviously there are benefits to having a good woman. So what? Too obvious to mention. There's also a bunch of downsides.

Your perception of yourself needs to be grounded. Too much fantasy of how great you are will eventually lead to problems if you can't live up to it.
I know my looks aren't great, but this does my reduce how I value myself to myself. From the perspective of girls I know it hurts me, but I don't send time worrying about empty things.
The perceptions of others need to be considered occassionally, but not preoccupied with.
Your focus should be on girls who respond well to you. Those who dislike you, just skip over them. You don't try to please or chase them.
There many factors at play: looks, charisma, extroversion, game, money, populariry, low standards, luck, etc.
Without who?
Ask your questions more clearly if you want good answers.

By fairness we mean relative differences in human capabilities and circumstances. We are not talking from an absolute level here.
If you are born crippled while some else is not, that counts a unfairness.
Yes, life is full of dualities. You were born a man and not a woman. You were born a human and not a kangaroo. And so on.

No, Life is not About Fairness, is about Survival, and of course Trancendence. If Nature would think about Fairness the Lions would Starve to Death and some Frogs too:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2nPa-8x0y3/?igsh=bWlxbXU5ZXVkZ2Ny
 

A warning for you men:
Do not get fixated on this value stuff. Don't let it be your only lens for seeing dating and relationships. That would be foolishly reductionistic and dysfunctional.
Don't make a Red Pill out of this.
Be careful with how your mind frames these issues. Value is only one perspective. There are other perspectives. Do not go around analyzing women in terms of numerical value. This will create huge problems for you. I do not endorse such thinking. Seeing women as numbers is very fucking dysfunctional.

Sure. I know for a fact my looks are not what most girls like. But that's what I got to work with. At some point it's not an active insecurity but just an acceptance of reality. But it can take a long time to get there.
If I'm in a club I'm not thinking at all about that kind of stuff. I turn off my logical mind and just try to have fun.
Of course I know that many girls rejected me simply for my looks. But the more you think about that the worse your results will be.

Look, value is extremely subjective. You may be low value in the eyes of 50 girls but high value in the eyes of 2 girls. And that can be enough. Those 2 can be your wives.
I am not physically high value. I have other kinds of high value for the right girls.
Just do the best you can and stop worrying about it.

Yes. I did that.
Of course that doesn't mean you'll be swimming in girls.
Yes. Some women. Remember, there are thousands of women and only some need to love you.
If all you want is 1 girl, it's easy. If you want dozens of girls, that's much harder.

In a party nightclub setting girls are drunk and just looking to have fun. So the value scan is very superficial: your looks, your vibe, your status.
Honestly, looks is a huge factor. You can compensate for it, but... value is looks, for men and women.

1) That's false. Regardless he is a handsome and charismatic guy.
2) Money and wealth are huge factors in attraction and value. So this cannot be overlooked.
1) Yes, of course the high value men pair with the high value women and the low value men pair with the low value women. Most humans are low value so they pair with themselves.
2) Even so, most men are sexually frustrated and struggle to get laid.
Of course!
And the only reason you like me is because I am not Hitler. If I was Hitler you wouldn't like me any more. So what?
All women are attracted to value. But not all of them aim high. Many people in general have very low standards.
The notion that women do not scan men for value is nuts. They all do it unconsciously if not consciously. This doesn't mean they will only sleep with high value men. Value is a totally relative matter. You will not sleep with a homeless guy. Why not? Because he's too low value for you.
The issue is that women's minds simply work in such a way that all of this is unconscious and instictive, not logically analyzed as we are doing here. So for a woman this kind of talk just does not compute or correspond to her reality. In her reality she just gets horny for some guy and doesn't care to know why. He's just magical and it's love. But behind the scenes her brain is doing value calculations.
Why is Taylor Swift fucking a Superbowl Athlete and not a homeless guy? Why does Taylor Swift not sing love songs about all the homeless men she's slept with? Because she is maxing out her value.
Actually we do. Japan, China, Russia, Germany, etc are facing into economic collapse and decline from lack of childbirth.
Why are you so sure about that?
Maybe they do. 
That is mostly thanks to previous generations. China's population is declining now every year.
It doesn't matter what the population numbers are, everyone is mating based on the value they can unconsciously maximize. How successful they are is another matter. Most people will end up settling.

It's not even assholes or badboys. She will sleep with an attractive man and ignore the unattractive ones. All this will happen so unconsciously that it won't even register in her mind. She will simply have zero feelings for the unattractive ones.
Well, what goes around comes around.
It's not that women are attracted to assholes, it's that attractive men have so much sexual abundance that they have no incentive to treat women well. Abundance leads to wasteful and abusive behavior. Like a billionaire who lights his cigars with $100 bills. Why not, if you can get away with it? Let's call this Russell Brand syndrome
Contemplate this: If you were as attractive as Russell Brand, you would treat women has he did. And if you're a woman you too would treat women badly if you were Russell Brand.

I found the best approach is to date freely whoever you want until things get serious and exclusivity arises.
Unethical would be if you start lying about things.
Setting the right frame is important. What are your intentions? Do you want a gf or do you want to just sleep around? Set your frame accordingly so she is not misled.

I'm not conservative in the sense of how online right-wing figures are. But I clearly see the problems and limits of progressives.
Trump is not a conservative. He's just a con-artist, and anything he touches will turn to shit.

It is amusing that Putin gave us a history lesson from the 1600s to justify his war. Really stretching there.