This BBC.com article is a good read and I recommend it to everyone. Whatever Ayn Rand may have wanted you to believe, "Paying it Forward" can be beneficial to the giver, as well as the receiver.
The question asked at the beginning of the piece, though, seems to miss what I think should be obvious. As the sub header states:
"Generous people are happier and healthier, yet acts of kindness are often met with suspicion and scorn. Why? David Robson talks to a psychologist who set out to find the answer."
My reply here would be thus: In the age of the "Hard Sell," where everything is commodity, and most of all developed societies operate on the idea of "Net Gain," why wouldn't every act of those you do not know be taken as a pitch to sell you on a questionable bill of goods. The very essence of the new "Amplification" of Capitalism on electric steroids is engineered facade and calculated message. And in this, the usual "Glowing Terms" and "Resonant Imagery" of ordinary propaganda, are taken to ever evolving new extremes of scientifically advanced seduction; with every aspect of your emotional, and physical being utilized to manipulate as required.
How could it be other wise for the great global, munching, fecal machine, that is Capitalism, as it gets better and better at producing ever more bits from the butt of our intellect, for the god of consumption, and profit. "Pay it Forward" is a human reaction from those desperate to remain human in the face of this obscene, and destructive, self perpetuating mode of operation. The only real question remaining that should concern us is when will we all come to terms with this fact and act to stop it once and for all.
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