Caren, SPITE is almost everywhere, and overcoming it is daunting. The downsides are enormous. We only have to look at Brexit, where the mentality was, "I will lower my living standard rather than share with foreigners."

Your Missouri library example is classic SPITE. "I will accommodate a diminished library if it means a more diminished one for you."

I recall in the 1990s when Boston Hipereans canceled the St. Patrick's Day parade because the courts ruled that they could not exclude a gay float. Millions of families and children were denied the festivities to exclude a small group.

There is a spiteful element with China where Americans deliberately make Chinese goods more expensive (or ban them) because we believe it will hurt China more than us.

The huge obstacle to introducing a UBI in America is SPITE. Preferring to go without as long as others don't get it.

That red states don't expand Medicaid is mostly SPITE.

Many thanks. Best.

Heather McGhee, in "The Sum of Us," has her example where the community filled the swimming pool with earth and closed the park rather than sharing them with a few Black kids.