The Prisoner's Dilemma

The Prisoner's Dilemma is an interesting concept. More people should understand this concept because then they would make more educated decisions about whether or not to cooperate with another person especially if they will be reasoning with this person again. In the example Houchin mentions the neighborhood people defect on the builder even though it would be more profitable for both parties to cooperate. I see no reason for people to, in general, to defect because if they can get the other participant to cooperate then they are always better than if they both defect. Most people however do not think like this, they think, "well their going to defect because they are greedy so I will defect so I do not get the smaller piece of the pie."  I think if more people understood that by cooperation they profit more than through defection then there would be more cooperation.