If we want to design institutions which can predictably avoid disastrous outcomes for their members and humanity in general, we have to understand what exactly they are. Consistently when describing the behavior of a corporation or government, people will say “it’s just people.” If that were true, their behavior would closely align with the intents and desires of the average person. Yet polling shows that individual people, for instance care about stopping global warming way more than our institutions reflect. Some people cope with this truth by insisting that actually most people must not care very much. Deep down they want to destroy the environment. Others cope by suggesting that it must not really be a problem. But the majority want to do something about it and yet the institutions that supposedly represent the majority do nothing.