Discussions
Is Greed a Good Thing?
Posted by drjalee52 • 10/07/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: gold, greed, things
During these challenging days, people are beginning to hoard things. Food, money, gold and water. People want more at all cost. Is greed O-Kay?
User Comments
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Greed is the beginning of the downward spiral; limiting the boundless bounties ultimately makes the person limited.-
In what ways? Is Bill Gates limited?
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Is Bill Gates a hoarder? No.
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I don't think bill gates is greedy. I think he did something he loved to do and made tons of money doing it. Not to mention he gives tons of that money away. I think donald trump,the hiltons,the kardashians.....they are greedy and famous for nothing... -
He has way more than his share. I would not call him a hoarder. But what about jobs? Is he doing anything to help all these people get jobs?
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How about keeping his company afloat and lending all that money he has in cash holdings? Or, for that matter, all those people employed both at his corporation and his nonprofit. Gates has done more then his share in that respect. -
Some them are not as pretty as they think. That Kim could not dance with the stars very well either. Who really cares. Do you see greedy people being helpful?
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@drjalee: I mean, if it's actually greed vs. what people think is greed then no. Sin always results, overall, in evil. But if it is simply loyalty, handling resources well, et cetera, then yeah, having someone who has a tough eye and a stern sense of honor and duty is very useful. I don't know how many of those people fit or don't fit that ideal, but the fact that's out there is really more important anyways.
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There is a big difference between being greedy/hoarder and being caring in the sense to save/store for the rainy days so as to protect and feed oneself and the near and dear ones. Although, there is a fine line separating greed from savings, we need to search our souls and look at the intent.
I agree Gates is a business man engaging in non-profit pursuits along with running his business shrewdly. The point is he is NOT a hoarder and is apparently NOT driven by greed. -
WP, and in fact being truly greedy is often ineffective in business, as Braniff Airlines showed, and if below the CEO level can be even more toxic, like at AIG.
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No Okay!-
If you say so. However, I do not see your why so clearly, could you explain O wise one?
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NO!!!!
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No means no. But I do not know what you mean. Could you break it down for me. Some people love greed....
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greed is not a good thing at all
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@HH: Absolutely, and true greed is actually extremely unsuccessful at business and destroys businesses, as Braniff Airlines, ENRON, and AIG showed.
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It is a good thing that they are taking extra care to take care of those they are most responsible for, but there has to be a line of honor somewhere on what they will and won't do to get more. So yes and no, although here the evil may be more the expression of something that was there already, a complete lack of honor.
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So a little greed wont hurt? What if some one took all of the food from us, what would happen?
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"So a little greed wont hurt?"
Not greed, loyalty, something the Father ("Who is good") did himself when he sided with Israel, his chosen people, over the hapless Amalekites (Numbers 2).
"What if some one took all of the food from us, what would happen?"
That's theft, not prudence.
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Some one took the jobs from the workers. Thats like food. Was it greed?
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No. Proper distribution of resources. You inflict a loss on the company, shareholders (including 401K holders needing to retire, and other businesses) suffer, or equity suffers if company is privately owned, making expansion of the business less likely and putting the jobs of all the workers in jeapordy. In the parable of the mika in Luke, Christ encourages christians to do well with everything they are given, including this kind of situation.
The world is a tough place, and the will of God is no different. You are called upon to make hard decisions, and assess things as they are. And you are not entitled to a job, it did not "belong to you" except as specified in contract to begin with. -
Why do ants all have jobs and work together?
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@drjalee: Ants aren't humans, nor should humans be ants.
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What about the ghost towns where everyone worked hard and the jobs left? What about all the people who graduated from college with no jobs to payback the loans? How about the people who took billions of pension money and bought jets, mansions and girlfriends? Is greed not a factor? Is it fair?
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Ghost towns usually exist because the location couldn't support a real town, and attempting to preserve them would create despair in major cities and throw the entire transportation grid out of whack. You always have to be carefully when going to college on student loans that your major actually can pay them back, and if the bank is smart at all, they'll work with you when you're unemployed, as they have no collateral to collect if the loan goes under. As for fairness, that job you don't own.
"How about the people who took billions of pension money and bought jets, mansions and girlfriends?" Is that actually legal? Or do you mean the "golden parachutes" that CEO's sometimes receive on retirement? -
Golden parachutes are not necessarily a bad thing either, because they act as an insurance policy against rash board decisions that could end a CEO's tenure almost as soon as he was selected. See, in our current business environment a board can fire their CEO the minute after he's hired, and it's a gentlemens agreement that if a board fires the CEO quickly they recompensate him for perceived damages. By keeping this code of honor, they make it much easier to attract top talent to replace him. Unfortunately, these high paychecks, to some degree, go to lesser CEO's too because lesser CEO's are a concilatory prize for failing to get a better CEO.
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“God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity” (Gaudium et Spes, 69) It is true that everyone is born with the right to use the goods of the earth, it is likewise true that, in order to ensure that this right is exercised in an equitable and orderly fashion, regulated interventions are necessary, interventions that are the result of national and international agreements, and a juridical order that adjudicates and specifies the exercise to this right. So, there is no room for greed in this context because it is bad ...-
That view is so fundamentally unbiblical on so many levels. Then again, it was invented by the same people who invented Purgatory, the Mastrubation ban, Indulgences and other such fun additions to the Bible!
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But please let me add these thought from St. Ambrose that made me believe that GREED is a sin:
"God has ordered all things to be produced so that there should be food in common for all, and that the earth should be the common possession of all. Nature, therefore, has produced a common right for all, but greed has made it a right for few." (St. Ambrose, Duties of the Clergy, 1. 132).
And another teaching : "The right to private property, acquired by work or received from others by inheritance or gift, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise." Catechism of the Catholic Church 2403.
Even if we believe that this teaching is without biblical basis, notice that the emphasis of the teaching is on production for sharing rather than survival and security. Of course, these are very important values, but the teaching implies that if we produce in order to share, then survival, security and many other such goods will be ours in abundance.
In Isaiah 58:6-11, the text is saying is not simply that we must be "charitable" to the poor, as if this were one of the many more or less equivalent duties we have as Christians, but that the love of God is inseparable from sharing the goods of this world with the poor, that communion with God cannot exist outside of solidarity with the oppressed... -
It is true that the Earth was made for the world, but when you take away human rights for some universalism or collective, the resulting abomination does not allow ANYONE to truly live. Further, in many ways the entire New Testament is an attack on collectivism and minding the external. It doesn't matter how many laws you enact, greed is a disease of the heart, and those who are greedy will exploit anything. The only way to clean out the outside of the dish is to clean the inside first, as our savior pointed out, and also as our savior pointed out, rules do have exceptions, like Christ healing on the Sabbath or Job "blaspheming" God at the end but being blameless for at that moment he truly owed God nothing and, under a very extreme set of circumstances that almost never comes up, was telling the truth. Greed is individual, it is not societal, nor can it be, nor can it not be. Collectivism of this sort is, by its' very nature, grotesquely superficial and much like the Pharisees.
Giving is an act of love, and if love does not accompany it, it is no good. To submit to the hypocrisy of stealing from the greedy is as unjust as it is detrimental to not only society, but all that society is composed of. King Asa killed those who had no faith, but then he didn't have faith and went to war without seeking Gods' counsel or aide. But then King Asa never truly had faith, for if he had, he would've trusted God to deal with those who had no faith himself.
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No.-
No really means?
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Greed is not a good thing, ambition is.-
And that's the problem. Where do you draw the line? Not everyone agrees on that.
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Greed can destroy a whole society. What happened to a place called Rome?
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@drjalee: Rome wasn't destroyed by greed, Rome was destroyed by the first welfare state and the resulting sloth.
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and here I thought it was about rampant jingoism... Hadrians wall, fighting against religious extremists in the middle east, etc. -
@Agit8r: They had ceased all of that 200 years before the end, and that Jingoism actually generated tremendous profit for them because it allowed them to cease slaves and carry them back to motherland.
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yeah i agree with you @owlbarn.
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Greed can never be good. In my opinion, greed is the root of all evil.-
You have said well....
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There are plenty of kinds of evil that have nothing to do with greed, like the desire for vengeance and sadism.
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We can have abundance in what is not materialistic...Balance is a good thing. Greed is unhealthy. I believe in sharing what I have. Don't carry too much in life it only weighs you down.-
@jeremy
Sadism is the hunger/greed for sick pleasure. Vengeance is the greed for pride/power. -
@aspotofblog: But then what about love being the hunger for a person, or the hunger for a good name, or the hunger to be good at what you do. By your definition, I'd say "greed" covers not just all evil, but all human behavior and motivation.
And vengeance has nothing to do with power. It has to do with trying to have a connection with someone you cannot.
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Individual greed is an individuals issue. Ive even met greedy poor people. If we are talking about a system that perpetuates monied excess by the same families as during the dark ages, that is another matter.
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Are we experiencing certain elements of the dark ages, given the changes in the economy and poverty on the rise?
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to a certain extent (as in the instance metioned above) they have never ended
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@jeremy
I shouldn't have used the word 'hunger'. Hunger is not the same as greed. And you have a very narrow definition of vengeance. Of course some forms of vengeance have to do with power.
This is how big greed is in our world: WWII was started because of Hitler's greed for power and complete control. Drug lords are driven by greed. The drug wars is one of the biggest battles we are fighting in society today. Child prostitution, human trafficking, all driven by greed. The decimation of our environment, all driven by a greed for more more more.
Whether it's greed for the ego or greed for wealth, greed for sex or greed for selfish motivation or greed for drugs or alcohol, greed is anything that goes beyond moderation, to the excess. It's no longer simply a need, it becomes a driving force. If you think greed is insignificant, then you are sorely mistaken. -
@aspotofblog: And what about Palestinians who blow themselves up on Isrealis out of anger. Look, just the fact that ANY part of vengenace would go against your definition invalidates your broad claim (source of all evil.) I know what the source of all evil is, it's lack of love, not greed. ANY lack of love, be it from apathy/tiredness/weakness or from greed, or from hatred and anger or conformity/fear like Saint Peter denying Christ or anything else is EVIL.
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Greed leads to self-distruction.-
Then, why do we have so many greedy people with power?
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@drjalee: Greed is also motivating. It's a little bit like Ashitaka's curse from "Princess Mononoke." It made him super strong, able to decapitate a heavilly armored samurai with a stone arrow, pierce the strongest armor, lift the heaviest doors, and pushed him for days to find a cure, but it also spreads through him, slowly killing him, eventually sapping all his energy and leaving him helpless as it crushes his very bones and spreads first across his armor, then his shoulder, then the rest.
Ironically, a greedy employee is probably more effective then a greedy businessmen, as employees only work rather then making decisions. -
@jeremy
You bring emotion into a lot of your arguments. Lack of love? For what? For ourselves? Our love for our fellow man? -
@aspotofblog: All of the above, plus God.
FYI: I think it's appropriate to include emotion in a moral argument. Also, I've seen some emotion from you as well in these arguments, but that's okay by me.
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I see nothing wrong with greed in moderation. Never hurts to save a little extra.-
This is true but once people see that they can keep going they don't stop.
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Not everyone. I tend to realize when enough is enough.
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@jeremy
Yes, that too. You often bring religion into your arguments as well.
I'm not religious. Does that make me susceptible to greed? -
Not greed in particular, but evil certainly. If you believe in a God and believe that he has done tremendous wonderful things for us, then you will also believe that not giving him credit or love or any due loyalty or gratitude is, to some degree, an evil act. As evil as burning down an orphanage? Probably not. But definitely evil. So yes, religion is relevant.
But beyond that, what is God? Something created this world, even the first particle could qualify! No matter what it is, don't you think it deserves a little bit of affection? Or at least the universe itself, if it is inherently continuous or the result of a single unprobable event?
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drjalee52, those greedy people that we see with power where able to control what they were doing and the choices they made, they didn't let it control them. Anytime people let money control there actions, then they are not in control anymore.
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MissSuzie, your right not everyone but you have self control which is something some people lack. If people had self control we wouldn't have Ponzi schemes or should I say we would know that they exist.
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Greed is a disgusting and abhorrent emotion.
The greed of money, the greed of gluttony, the ideology of; be more, have more, do more. It's all wrong.
The most basic trait of human beings is to share. When we talk, laugh, joke, we are sharing, that is why torrenting will never die. People have the urge to share, to share cultures, ideas, thoughts. It's what we do best. We have lost sight of this.
Greed suppresses these ideologies, it is the greed of the corpocracies, plutocracies, and large corps who are to blame. They brain wash us with tripe on TV making us feel small and insignificant, therefore forcing us to go and purchase the latest skin cream to make us all look like some beautiful Adonis... yeah right.
It's ALL an illusion folks, they have hidden the truth from us for too long.
People are now waking up to the truth.-
"The most basic trait of human beings is to share. When we talk, laugh, joke, we are sharing, that is why torrenting will never die. People have the urge to share, to share cultures, ideas, thoughts. It's what we do best. We have lost sight of this."
I'm going to puke. -
I'm a misanthropic atheist at heart, so I wasn't meant to be all bible bashy lovey dovey on you.
I'm just saying that human beings do one thing well, and that is to share. Hence the power of internet memes. -
Oh I don't think it's the only thing we do well, we also explore, discover, conquer, overcome, build loyalties, live life, and that's a part of the bible too, although it is one that Chruch's like to conveniently ignore. I'm very much a Christian, but I'm also a Christian who recognizes the dangers of oversimplification and self-lying, and I also see the rugged and adventuruous side that most Christians want to ignore and do so partially by not reading the Old Testament.
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"I'm going to puke"
good grief, JJ. Don't ever read our founding fathers talking about our "social wants" then!
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To say that human beings are only good at giving to each other is to say that human beings have no value. This cruel assertion, of course, makes one sick.
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market fundementalism assumes as much
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@Agit8r: Don't see it. Mostly it just assumes that human beings make largely rational decisions when making market decisions and that what is good for the individual is good for society. Of course, this doesn't factor out externalities, which is my main gripe with it.
There are also more sophisticated economic libertarians that do consider externalities but do not believe that government is capable of succesfully dealing with them. Don't entirely agree with that group either.
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I think greed is what seperates us from the animal kingdom. We don't just provide our basic needs and the needs of our family, people have an additional drive to have more than the next guy. This has nothing to do with survival...no one NEEDS $1 billion. In that sense it's humans, and their greed for "MORE" that is in essence ruinging our lively hood.-
and yet there is an animal quality there. The promotion of one's DNA in exclusion of all others. No different really from a male lion coming across another's cubs and tearing them apart with his jaws before cohabitating with their mother....
not really different at all -
Animal behaivior is instictive and therefore in the direction of survival. There is a substantial difference between the mating habits of lions and the over indulgence of wealth displayed by, lets say the Walton family, heirs to the Wal Mart fortune.
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Animals will seek more then they have to. In particular, there have been cases on cattle ranches where wolves have killed more cows then they needed to survive and then left rotting carcasses on the land.
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the key similarity? DEVOURING
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Except they didn't devour all of them, though they certainly devoured more then they needed.
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Is greed ugly, do people get hurt by it and should it be a crime or sin?
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Greed is ugly, and yes people suffer.
In the words of Madonna:
Poor is the man who's pleasures depend on the permission of others.
Greed is in essence capitalism, this broaches a whole new subject for discussion. -
It is certainly a sin and like all sins it does hurt people. While I do believe that some people exaggerate how central greed is, and while there are a few minor strengths to it, when you balance the books you come out in scarlet red the expenses are so great, so yes, it is a sin. As for a "crime," as in illegal, I don't see how you'd enforce that. I know the USSR tried, and failed miserably, and further there is a certain arrogance to authoritarianism in that it assumes that you'd never have a justified reason for, oh, say, paying somebody a lot of money so that the can work for you instead of someone else. You also see this in the abortion debate - the sheer outlandish arrogance of both the Christian Left and Christian Right is astoudning.
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@SolReka: No. Capitalism is any voluntary system of ownership and buying and selling, along with the attached structures that arise out of it. I think what you're thinking of is consumerism. Strictly speaking, Communists are very Consumerist and Materialistic, so much so that they consider "bad" distribution of "resources" a capital offense. Doesn't get much greedier then that.
What I see in people who want to make Greed illegal is a massive greed for power. Like all authoritarians, they are profound hypocrites and have no humility or ability to see that they might be wrong. It is far more of a crime to bar a man from doing for himself what is right then to simply say "no" to helping him, for when you say "no" to helping him you are merely declining what is your own, while when you take away his own freedom, you steal from him AND decline what is your own.
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I remember Stavros (Easy Jet owner) once said that people don't really need more than $12 million to live on, they can buy everything they need on just $12 mill.
The need to want to have $1 billion baffles me. It's just pure greed and power, these guys must have extremely small &^&*s lol
Besides, we spend our lives trying to make money, and when we've made our fortunes, we spend the rest of our time trying to give it away... Go figure!-
@SolReka: How do you know they don't want to give away a fortune? Maybe some people become richer with that very intention. And how do you know that it's not a game for them, entertainment? How do you know they don't like working? Some people do. There are a lot of assumptions here. Besides, once you've made your first few million, you have a lot of capital to make investments no one else can, giving you easy money that no one else has the arms to pick.
Bottom line is, you do not have the right to their life. That life is there's, given to them by God, to screw up or build up as they see fit. Besides don't you see the hypocrisy here? You don't like them not giving, so you're going to steal from them? Why? Why are you justified? Especially if they made that money themselves but even if it was given to them, it was a gift, and you should respect the rights of the giver.
You're entitled to nothing. -
I'm not comfortable talking about religious connotations, being as I have more belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster than I do other gods. And religions are a hot potato on BC which upsets people very easily ref BC post - Do you believe in God Yes/No.
However, this raises a worthy argument; was religion set up to control the masses? So the few (the puppeteers) can take their rich pickings, and wallow in greed, debauchery, and gluttony at the expense of others.
PS @jeremyjanson
- I know I have no right to any life, I never said I did. And my life was not 'given' to me by anyone, especially God, who or whatever that means. I believe I came from a spermatozoa, nothing more nothing less. -
@SolReka: "However, this raises a worthy argument; was religion set up to control the masses? So the few (the puppeteers) can take their rich pickings, and wallow in greed, debauchery, and gluttony at the expense of others."
Doubt it. Religion desegregated the South, gave women the right to vote in the US, brought down the Iron Curtain, ended the slave trade in England, and provided a crucial counterweight to the growing influence of aristocrats in Medieval Europe. If they created it with such intentions, they sure made a bad mistake and I'm sure are now regretting it full-heartedly.
I do agree that wealthy people, along with everyone else, will use Religion when they can. Actually, you and drjalee were using religion to defend Socialism until I pointed out how religion doesn't support it.
People will grab on to anything they can. If it has importance, it will be used. People's emotions, religion, progress, freedom, money, patriotism, pride, "edumacation" and Academia, trusted authorities, law and order, love of family and children as the Nazis proved, all these and more can be and will be used. The people who are fighting the elite will also use these. Such is the Battle of Evermore. See, rich people don't need to invent anything, they just grab on to whatever was already there. Much easier, and people will always come up with a reason to live.
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Is greed an illness, are people who are greedy actually sick?
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"Is greed an illness"
NO, just selfish imo -
Does greed hurt other people? If so how and why?
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@drjalee: By removing them from your heart, and therefore your consideration. There is nothing to stop the inevitable thoughtless acts and negligence that happen next.
@SolReka: In a way, it is a sickness, a sickness of the heart, and one that can really only be cured by the individual themselves. Sickness is anything that makes you unhealthy, and nothing about greed is healthy.
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Nothing wrong with greed. -
Greed is defined as "excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves ". With everyone dealing with limited resources and having to share more and accumulate less greed does seem to be something which could take us further from the lives we want as rather than helping others up we're too focused on grabbing our share.-
Greed is very ugly, It causes pain, disloyality and is considered a sin, right up there with Jealousy, gossip, and all of those other ugly words...of course greed hurts other people, you have to ask..hummm! -
"With everyone dealing with limited resources..."
Resources are limited, but they are not constant. Be careful with that line of thinking. You take away people's motivation to build, furnish, service, or find, and you will have less to distribute.
Primarily, greed hurts by removing people from consideration and all the inevitable crimes of negligence that follow.
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In a nutshell, greed is all about control.
Why do think the Iraq war has been going for all these years, why the countless and needless deaths. For what!!!!
Control = Greed / Greed = Control
"The secret to success is to own nothing, but control everything" Nelson Rockafeller-
Big assumption. I think the War in Iraq has been going on because Bush actually thought it was a good idea strategically. Or maybe he was angry because Saddam tried to kill his father. Both more likely then an oil scheme, especially if you understand the way the oil market works:
See, if anyone sells oil to anyone, they won't buy that same oil from someone else. If we are getting our oil from Ecuador, and China's getting their oil from Iraq, they won't be getting it from Ecuador. That brings down the price of Ecuador's oil. In effect, Saddam sells to us whether he wants to or not, because if he sells to anyone, they won't be buying from our supplier, and if he doesn't, his people will starve and he'll eventually be thrown out of power.
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How many of the wotlds problems are rooted in greed?
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The misunderstanding of greed is one of the biggest misconceptions there is today. You can’t have a rich nation without a lot of greed and self-interest. A democracy won’t work without greed. There is no greater motivating force in human nature than greed.
Now, let me explain, Just like electricity greed can be very dangerous but it is not your enemy. Greed is something that must be bridled and harnessed but never shut down or snuffed out. The main reason communism and socialism will always fail is because they shuts down greed and self-interest.
Greed is the energy and force that motivates entrepreneurs in a free market place to produce far more food and product than any one nation can use. You shut off greed and self-interest and you are going to have a failed starving nation. And that is the direction we are headed.-
Actually that's more of a misunderstanding of greed. You can't have a developed first-world nation without making smart, private economic decisions, including those sometimes misjudged as greedy, for the interest of the business. There is always an economic cost, and sometimes you have to rule the cost is too high.
That's not what greed is. Greed is the obsession with having more, not simply wanting more, but obsessing to the point where it crowds out other people and honor and lawfulness. Greed, indeed, is a sickness.
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There is noting wrong with ambition but greed is always wrong.-
I agree. Everyone should try to achieve excellence. Greed is taking more than ones share and not caring about fairness. What does greed really mean....
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Actually, greed is not considering anyone else above your own wants. "One's share" does not exist but as appropriate to "One's brethren" and "One's honor" and, more then these, "One's Creator" (The Great Commandments). Everything from nothing to everything may be appropriate depending upon the circumstances, your life, your function, and how it is used.
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People who like to paint the world in black and white would rather be made fully of candy
Our universe has all kinds of things, and there is a way for them to coexist and keep things running
Don't look at greed alone. If your banker were not greedy your bank couldn't afford you a rate of interest or your boss at the bank wouldn't have given you that pay hike. At that time I BET you didn't question "greed"
And when one is working for a good cause, then the greed travels in the opposite direction in your little ethics-meter-
Is the term greed being properly applied in your example? Ambition and competitiveness are different from greed. Tell me if I am off on this one?
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But when the banks collapsed this very ambition and competitiveness became greed. The work they were doing is just the same as ever!
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It is alright to be greedy if you are raising money to help the needy, the poor, the oppressed and the hungry. Get all the donations you can from the people who can pay the most. Otherwise greed is not a good idea.-
Being effective and being the best is different than greed. This great fund raiser would take the money for them-self. Greedy people are takers.. Selling people used cars that they know will only work for 2 weeks.
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@drjalee: Also dishonest.
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Greed isn't ok, because God will seek those in need if they show him they will go thy way he maps. -
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What is the opposite of greed?
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Apathy?
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Apathy is the antonym of greed? Is that correct? I must check.
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I think apathy is the antonym of any passion.
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If you're greedy, it means you want more than you actually need or can use. What's the good of that? It's like overeating, or having too much to drink. It'll only make you sick.-
Solid answer NP. I like it, especially the short parable.
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A lot of people mentioned that on the thread, not just np.
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Yeah but NP covered all the bases and defended his argument in the statement. Also, he didn't make rash claims about "All Evil." It was adequately measured and correctly stated in an elegant way.
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What happens when you multiphy this number by 10 million; what happens?
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Of course, and I've previously stated that Greed is bad. I just don't believe that Greed is societal or that it is always correctly defined, and I certainly believe that there are aspects of evil that have nothing to do with greed. I also don't believe that the free-market is inherently greedy so much as wise and frugal. Greed is more about detachment and obsession then amounts.
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The price of gold is rising, so you know people are going to hoard it!-
Is that bad? Is the action of inherently reserving something you have for when it can be sold for more inherently evil? Especially when it's, of all worthless vain objects, gold? Or is greed something else, something much more about its effect on your view of other human beings?
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For people who gold long before the recession, they are lucky...they can sell gold for a profit when money is tight.
For people who buy gold NOW, are the ones who hope that gold will rise further...to make a greedy profit! -
@exit2013: Or a useful profit. What if the person is a welfare mother who received a $500 bonus last month when working at a Warehouse for fixing a Forklift traffic jam, and is hoping to turn it to $800, and then invest further so her kids can pay for college?
I know a person who was a normal assembly line worker in Seattle who saved up a little bit of money and then invested in many schemes and now has enough to provide a better living for his family, even a house on an Alpine Lake in the Mountains. He sent his kids to college, out of state at a school that suits them, something he couldn't have done without that decision.
Like many who condemn market choices, I think you're coming to too many conclusions on too little information. -
@jeremy
No, np gave a wonderful definition of greed.
Sure, ALL is perhaps an irresponsible claim, but I do believe greed is the root of most evil deeds. And I'm talking about EVIL deeds, not little misdemeanors. -
@aspotofblog: Evil deeds come out of misdemeanors, and killing 20 Isrealis with a bomb strapped to yourself is no misdemeanor. As for "most," on what basis? And I'm not sure what you're saying "no" to. "No" to the idea that welfare mothers should try to improve their lives?
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Besides, if you know what the actual source of all evil is, don't you think that's more useful to address, as it will address both what is attached to greed, and what isn't?
And if greed is not societal, and you try societal solutions that strip all of their freedom only to empower the greedy more, don't you think you've done Evil?
"The road to hell is paved with a million good intentions." -Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Greed is deadly. It destroy everything and everybody. We must fight it at all cost.
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Half the world is deadly, and self-righteousness et cetera can be far more destructive to people. I agree that greed is evil, but it is not that absolute most vile side of our nature.
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No Okay.-
No, o-kay? Could you break that down please? You seem to be really concerned about this greed thing...
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greed is ok...and it depends on what your desire to...-
What about when some one suffers because thier share is taken?
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People that have USD 1 billion gave u USD 1 million = Great?
People that have USD 100 gave u USD 1 (only?) = WTH?-
Asking somebody with only $100 to their name for their money?
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I am not too clear on your point. Could explain what this means regarding greed?
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