Dishonoring Greed

i want to dishonor greed. For too long in our society the “greed is good” slogan has been bandied about. It is actually a shortened version out of the movie “Wall Street." The character, Gordon Gekko, states that “greed for lack of a better word, is good.” This slogan has been applied to an aspect of the American Dream that covets a vast accumulation of wealth, status and power. Dishonoring of greed means discussing where that can lead.

According to Plato “The man who is under the despotism of a master passion (fill in the blank) is the unhappiest by three tests of well-being: freedom, wealth, and security from fear. His unlimited license to “do what he likes” is not a genuine freedom.” As he and his fellow wealthy accumulate more and more the disparity between their great wealth and that of their countrymen leads towards an oligarchic state where the wealthy control the reins of government.

For the greedy man his pleasure is illusory because he is always consumed with want and fear. Want for what his wealthy neighbors have and fear that someone might take what he already accumulated away from him. To control the fear and want he must be at all times in control of his environment and either in control of government or sufficiently connected be able to influence political outcomes.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his speech "The Children of Gordon Gekko" concerning the Financial crisis of 2007-2010 stated “It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. Today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st-century children of Gordon Gekko.

In order to hang onto wealth, the wealthy have to manipulate the common man to emulate the greed is good mantra. Most of us will never reach the echelons of wealth that the 1% enjoy but the thought that maybe some of us could creates a garden of ideas the wealthy have been watering for 30 years now. Today some of the failing middle class are waking up to the fact that those 1% are just getting wealthier while the rest of the country has stagnated or gone backwards.

There is no way to be greedy without exploiting others. There is no such thing as good greed and if you are religious you are well acquainted with the fact that greed is one of the 7 deadly sins. Greed does not find peace; it is the catalyst for war and today it is becoming more about a class war than a nation united.

Plato discusses the disparity in wealth as a decline of society where the rich are in control and the poor man can not attain public office. We are seeing this now all over the country, where only those with sizable fortune’s can even run for office. As the wealth flows upwards the powerful exert more influence (Citizens United) to keep that wealth while virtue suffers. They despise the poor man, they ridicule and demean him while promoting the rich who enjoy all the praise and admiration. Eventually as Plato describes there is a limiting of privilege in this kind of society which we can certainly recognize through the debates about health care, education and government jobs.

Getting involved in believing that greed is good means you will loose sight of how you are taking advantage of others. You will put on blinders so that the advantage is minimized. Empathy will become a dirty word and compassion will be executed in measured doses.

There is something perverse about more than enough. When we have more, it is never enough. It is always somewhere out there, just out of reach. The more we acquire, the more elusive enough becomes. –Unknown

When honest people are thrown out of work, as they have been in Wisconsin and other states, because the hoarders don’t want to pay taxes to support schools, policeman, firemen etc., it is time to re-evaluate why 1% of our population is hoarding 40% of the nations wealth.  These values of self interest and greed are contributing to the bad economy we all are experiencing.

When the elderly are threatened with not getting their Social Security checks we have gone over the top. When are we going to open our eyes and ask why the wealthy can’t pay a little bit more?

Some have gone so far as to refer to the “Free Market” as the “Greed Market.” i just want to know when people are going to wake up and start looking out for their interests and not those of the wealthy.