Jim Maule, my colleague over at Mauled Again, has an interesting entry on the question of greed as a motivation for behavior. It's called Children, Toys, Greed, Profits, Gambling, and Lessons from History. Here's an excerpt that I find particularly accurate, and a necessary antidote to the "greed is good" concept that has driven much of our behavior--and the financial institutions' excesses of speculation and risktaking--over the last few years. It is also an important cautionary note for those who want to ensure that our democracy is not further weakened by the continuing consolidation of wealth and the power that accompanies it.
"For example, someone needs to step up and make it clear that a free market isn't a license to shift the consequences of bad decisions onto the unwitting and the unwilling. Recently I read a comment, and unfortunately I cannot find it, that equated greed with the seeking of profits. It's one thing to seek income and assets in order to meet what one needs to survive, to be comfortable, and to support one's dependents. It's a totally different thing to seek income and assets orders of magnitude beyone what is needed for survival and comfort. In today's economy, no one needs to own billions of dollars of assets or to earn tens of millions of dollars per year. Seeking these sorts of profits and accumulations of wealth is a matter of addiction, of thirst for power, or both. A person can eat only so much, can wear only so much, can drive only one vehicle at a time, and has only one body in need of health care. So what does one do with the excess income and wealth? One buys votes. One controls society through off-shore entities. One tries to arrange for one's children and grandchildren to live lavishly without needing to work. Are these behaviors good for society? I propose that the answer is no, because the efforts made to attain these options have imposed a huge price on society, and we're only beginning to see the extent of the damage that has been done."
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