Greed as a moral wrong and what to do about it

[camero]

http://www.g-r-e-e-d.com/GREED.htm

An essay concerning the origins, nature, extent and morality of this destructive force in free market economies. Definitions. Paradoxes and omissions in Adam Smith's original theory permit - encourage - greed without restraint so that in a very large society over two centuries it has become an undemocratic force creating precipitous inequalities; divisions in this society now approach a kind of wealth apartheid, and our values are quite unlike Smith's: this is an immensely wealthy society but it is not a humane society. Wealth and poverty are connected, in fact recent sociological theory shows our institutions routinely design inequality in, but this connection is largely avoided in texts and in the media, as is the notion that greed is a moral wrong. Problems created by greed cannot be solved by technology. We are also distracted by already-outdated environmental rhetoric, arguments that scarcities and human suffering follow from abuse of our ecology. Rather, these scarcities are the result of what people do to people. This focus opens practical solutions.

Robert Reich points out that the superrich live in a parallel universe to the rest of the country: much of the time we don’t see them because they live in walled estates, travel in private limousines and use different airports from the rest of us (4). There’s lots of them. There are now more than 200 billionaires. Some five percent of American households have assets over $1 million. And we’re back to levels of extravagant consumption not seen for 100 years (5).

Misery is a word seldom applied to the contemporary scene. Like wretchedness it seems antique, an Old World term. But many Americans live in cold, dank slums; many do not earn enough for shelter, many sleep outside. In America’s inner cities and at its lowest levels, under freeway bridges and in tubercular alleys, in stained and broken rooming houses and in torn-apart schools, misery exists and persists. All our largest cities contain neighborhoods where some people live day to day in apartments that could be mistaken for closets, some fearing to leave home on gang-terrorized streets, some sharing bus seats with people with drug-scarred arms. Every great metropolis has its skid row mired in fecal gutters, where whole blocks are awash in narcotics and violence, its inhabitants despised and flatly abandoned.


Greed vastly predates Smithian economics, of course. It is one of the Bible’s Seven Deadly Sins. Contemporary dictionaries define it as intense acquisitiveness of (usually material) goods or wealth. To dilate: Greed is the acquisition of a desirable good by one person or a group beyond need, resulting in unequal distribution to the point others are deprived. Competitive greed is the same type of acquisition deliberately to create that inequality. Punitive greed is the same type of acquisition deliberately to leave the deprived suffering, powerless or disabled. Sometimes it takes fine grained analysis of circumstance and motive to distinguish these, but all the preceding involve overt behaviors, and the measure is the resulting inequities. Simple greed does not require intention, for instance while continuing to acquire in the face of others’ deprivation a person denies greed explaining he is unaware of results; it is still greed, the measure being the resulting inequity. Next, passive hoarding which perpetuates extremes of inequity previously created is also greed. Next, greed is not always impulsive. It may be planned and calibrated; sustained effort and greed are not incompatible. Next, greed can be exhibited by person, group, corporation, even government. Common observation also shows personality differences. Not everybody exhibits the extremes of greed; but I believe all people act on the impulse at some time in their lives. Separately, greed can be purely mental, a longing, or craving, akin to obsession and addiction, not acted upon, but this is the province of the psychologist.



This essay resurrects the moral dimension. If the consequences of greed are harm and pain, it is immoral. If greed is flaunted, when the pain is known, it is also sociopathic. These situations are quite common. Anyone doubting the concept of punitive greed should recall that the ancient book by Sun Tzu The Art of War is required reading in top corporate circles.

The point of the article is that the problems of society is not a question of scarcity per se, but in our unequal distribution and in some cases, vast consumption of natural resources by a few.

The nut game near the end of the article is a perfect example of that.

[canuckforpeace]

1. Can you explain what "passive hoarding" is?

Perhaps an example? I have bookmarked the article to read later.

I have been interested in greed as the cause of our woes for quite a while. There was an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun about a month ago called "Greed is Good". I would've liked to send a rebuttal to that but didn't have the ammo to put something together quickly. Maybe this essay will help me in the future.

Thanks for posting it.

[camero]

2. What I took from it

Passive hoarding would be accepting things from others even though you already have enough to live. Such as a CEO accepting a bigger contract even as the stock tanks.

Just my opinion. It didn't give a strict definition of it. I'm sure it could be interpreted more broadly.

[Malva Zebrina]

3. thank you for that post

It is long but interesting.

I,personally,am overwhelmed and have no solution. It is unfortunate that many do not consider or think that the good of all in any society, is or should be, their concern. It is unfortunate that people become slaves to this forever "striving" , in this case for goods that advertising has convinced us, we must have (but do not need) and do not have the slightest bit of interest in the poor, the unfortunate or the lower classes. But that is the case.

[camero]

4. I thought one interesting solution was one already proposed

and some countries have implemented. Tie the wages of those at the top to those at the bottom. Things such as a law stating the wages of the rich can only be so much (say 40-50 times) more than the lowest paid worker.

I too feel overwhelmed and sometimes think we can't fight it but fight it we must lest we destroy ourselves.

[lil-petunia]

5. actually it is simply immaturity.

children's eyes are always bigger than their hands or their mouths. Some simply never grow up.

[bloom]

18. Greed is being glorified -

You could also say that immaturity is being glorified and that covers a larger range of values.

But this business of glorified greed where people are supposed to admire those who excel at it the most is a specific and especially insidious and evil thing. IMO.

Greed is the thing that drove those involved to steal the 2000 election.

Greed is that thing that is driving the Iraq War.

Greed is behind the lack of universal healthcare in this country.

Etc.

[camero]

6. Inequality: Goose or Goose-killer?

There is much evidence that suggests it's a goose killer and that equality is the goose.

http://www.inequality.org/geese.html

Equality can boost growth in several ways. Perhaps the simplest is that study after study has shown that farmland is more productive when cultivated in small plots. So organizations promoting more equal distribution of land, like Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement, are not just helping the landless poor--they're contributing to agricultural productivity!

Another reason for the link between equality and growth is what Easterly calls "match effects," which have been highlighted in research by Stanford's Paul Roemer and others in recent years. One example of a match effect is the fact that well-educated people are most productive when working with others who have lots of schooling. Likewise, people working with computers are more productive when many others have computers (so that, for example, e-mail communication is widespread, and know-how about computer repair and software is easy to come by). In very unequal societies, highly educated, computer-using elites are surrounded by majorities with little education and no computer access, dragging down their productivity. This decreases young people's incentive to get more education and businesses' incentive to invest in computers, since the payoff will be smaller.

Match effects can even matter at the level of a metropolitan area. Urban economist Larry Ledebur looked at income and employment growth in 85 U.S. cities and their neighboring suburbs. He found that where the income gap between those in the suburbs and those in the city was largest, income and job growth was slower for everyone.

[camero]

7. It takes a village to make a millionaire

http://www.inequality.org/ididntdoit.html

"I DIDN'T DO It Alone": Society's Contribution to Individual Wealth and Success," a report from United for a Fair Economy, spotlights successful entrepreneurs like investor Warren Buffett, Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's), and Eric Schmidt of Google, and concludes that the myth of self-made success is not only false but destructive to the social and economic infrastructure that fosters wealth creation.


How we think about wealth creation is important since policies such as large tax cuts for the wealthy often draw on the myth of the self-made man," says "I Didn't Do It Alone" co-author Chuck Collins. "Taxes are portrayed as onerous, unfair redistribution of privately created wealth -- not as reinvestment or giving back to society. Yet, where would many wealthy entrepreneurs be today without taxpayer investment in the Internet, transportation, public education, legal system, the human genome and so on?"

Jim Sherblom, a venture capitalist and former chief financial officer of the biotech firm Genzyme, says, "The opportunities to create wealth are all taking advantage of public goods -- like roads, transportation, markets -- and public investments. None of us can claim it was all personal initiative. A piece of it was built upon this infrastructure that we all have this inherent moral obligation to keep intact."

[BeFree]

8. Yep

The richest are rich solely because of the efforts put forth by many an individual. The fruit of a thousand harvests gathered by one.

I am glad to see some folks taking the correct view that the infrastructure, schools, good government, even military privates, have contributed to their richness. And that the continued progress of those elemental factors is crucial to sustaining their richness.

As to greed: Oil is a limited resource. The greed in using it up as fast as possible is probably the most horrific and troublesome kind of greed imaginable.

[camero]

9. The sad part

Technology won't solve it if greed isn't dealt with.

[camero]

10. Kick

For a good article

[kaishaku]

11. greed is only immoral to materialists

if one is not materialist then greed is amoral.
Why fight a battle that can't be won?

[camero]

12. Just how would greed be amoral?

It's a battle that can be won but only by making it a case of morality. Corporations as an entity in itself is amoral because it is only concerned with profits.

Food would be a material needed to survive. People are greedy with that too.

[JanMichael]

13. At first glance a very good essay.

I'll read it in it's entirety tomorrow.

Thanks

[camero]

14. I thought so

It explains alot

[JanMichael]

21. I've had a chance to read it now. It defines the problem quite well.

The summary was not as moving as the Intro and Body of the essay however.

I also thought that the rather brief mention of the Durants wasn't enough, they could have been quoted much more effectively.

[camero]

22. True, but it's a start

It's a subject that's barely mentioned or explored. It should have gone more into the psychology of it too but I thought the Tom Sawyer part was a good example of the problem.

[Malva Zebrina]

23. I have tried to research the Durants

and unfortunatly cannot afford the price on their many volumes.

I would love to have that in my library.

A short book by Helen and Scott Nearing is well worth the read if one wishes to live the "simple life"

[camero]

15. kick

[camero]

16. kick

kick

[camero]

17. One more kick

eom

[Ahriman]

19. Always remember Gordon Gekko. That's what a Republican is.

[camero]

20. They are caricatures no doubt

But they are caricatures that hurt all of us through their greed.

[camero]

24. Leaving so soon?

[camero]

25. Kick