There is a lot of truth in the saying you can't cheat an honest man. I would simplify it more and say it is harder to be taken advantage of if one enters interactions without a merchant spirit. The minute we are open to a payoff for our involvement (which to be fair is not unreasonable within certain limits) we open ourselves to being taken.

Certainly you see this a lot with politicians who craft bills designed to cause great harm at large expense to the citizens and wrap it up in names designed to illicit sympathies, such as using kids, or fighting this bad thing or that.