Define Greed

CrackerJax

CrackerJax

New Member
Greed can be directed in a good way (Capitalism), or a bad way (socialism), or in a horrific nightmare way (communism).

But in the end, greed is everywhere.... it is part of the human condition.

Those that think that SHOULD be changed are the same group of ppl that end up liquidating citizens.

In the end, "liberalism" is a denial of the human condition.
 
RickWhite

RickWhite

Well-Known Member
yestim666 said:
Greed and its bad rep has to do with how you get it and who you hurt to get it. I have known people who will do ANYTHING to get ahead. Someone who is truely "greedy" is a sociopath. Being rich and greedy are two totally different things.
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That is a great distinction. I do believe people can be unethical and inhumane in their pursuit of monetary gain. That being said, there is a question of how these are defined.

Suppose a business owner has a project that might be worth doing if he can get it done cheap enough. Suppose he has a lot that he could use for extra parking and needs the weeds cleared but the work is only worth $100 to him and it will take 15 hours. Is the business owner a rotten bastard for offering the job at that rate or should he opt to just leave the weeds because he can't pay an "ethical" wage to pull the weeds?
 
ViRedd

ViRedd

New Member
RickWhite said:
Interesting. Everyone who responded is at least fiscally Conservative. Funny how some questions just naturally cause cognitive dissonance in the minds of Progressives. When the question is an obvious one that requires them to examine their policies analytically, they simply choose not to think about it.
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Exactly right, Rick.

Remember a couple of months ago when I started a thread asking the progressives/liberals what the country would look like if every one of their wishes were enacted into law? There was not one cogent reply ... in fact, I don't remember any reply from them at all. The question must have scrambled their grey matter a bit. :lol:
 
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PadawanBater

Guest
Rob Roy said:
^^ Good points Vi.

Greed alone is not inherently bad. Greed is a desire for excess wealth or success. I have no problem with a person meeting their goals. How they meet their goals might be where the problem comes in.

Was their wealth obtained through fraud, deceit or force? If not, be as greedy as you like. The measure of what represents greed is hard to fix. Even poor people in the United States today would appear "greedy" to a person in the 3rd world if material possessions were the measuring stick of greed. People with no weed might think a guy with a good harvest and no intentions of sharing is greedy.
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Great post.
 
Man o' the green

Man o' the green

Active Member
yestim666 said:
Greed and its bad rep has to do with how you get it and who you hurt to get it. I have known people who will do ANYTHING to get ahead. Someone who is truely "greedy" is a sociopath.
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If greed is present in human nature, does this mean that if left to our own devices ( without the state ) , we would all descend into a greedy chaos of sociopaths ? This does seem like a good argument for government control.
Altruism is also present in human nature; we would never have survived this long without it.

Is everyone required to share something, else be labeled "greedy" ? And is it progressive in nature, that those with more must give more as a percentage ? If you don't, do you deserve prison or just scorn ? One choice is a free society, the other is not.
 
CrackerJax

CrackerJax

New Member
That's why we have capitalism. It funnels the greed best. Greed is always present, but it can be harnessed.

Capitalism harnesses it best by giving the return directly to the individual. the farther away you get from the individual....socialism....communism.... the worse things become.
 
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PadawanBater

Guest
CrackerJax said:
That's why we have capitalism. It funnels the greed best. Greed is always present, but it can be harnessed.

Capitalism harnesses it best by giving the return directly to the individual. the farther away you get from the individual....socialism....communism.... the worse things become.
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Do you envision a world where not a single person goes starving?

Is that a possibility to you?
 
RickWhite

RickWhite

Well-Known Member
CrackerJax said:
The overwhelming majority of wealth is created the old fashioned way.... good choices and hard work.
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This is true of everything in life. When we make the right choices in all we do, we wind up being better and happier people. This is true with regard to wealth, how we treat our bodies, on what we focus our thoughts, with whom we choose to associate and to bed down with, etc. Those who bring bad things into their lives reap what they sow as do those who make better choices. You lay with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

Understanding that like most things, life has numerous wrong ways of doing things and very few right ones, is the trick to being healthy in every aspect of one's life. Too bad so many are blind to this fact.

I do my best to help people understand this, but many prefer to take the easier path of immediate gratification and personal denial.
 
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PadawanBater

Guest
RickWhite said:
This is true of everything in life. When we make the right choices in all we do, we wind up being better and happier people. This is true with regard to wealth, how we treat our bodies, on what we focus our thoughts, with whom we choose to associate and to bed down with, etc. Those who bring bad things into their lives reap what they sow as do those who make better choices. You lay with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

Understanding that like most things, life has numerous wrong ways of doing things and very few right ones, is the trick to being healthy in every aspect of one's life. Too bad so many are blind to this fact.

I do my best to help people understand this, but many prefer to take the easier path of immediate gratification and personal denial.
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Are you of the opinion that everyone is born with exactly the same amount of equal opportunities and natural potential?
 
doc111

doc111

Well-Known Member
PadawanBater said:
Do you envision a world where not a single person goes starving?

Is that a possibility to you?
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I used to in my younger days (which is why I went into the field I went into-so I could help people)but I realized that is unrealistic and not possible. Especially as the world's population grows. Farmland is becoming scarcer and scarcer and there are more mouths to feed. :cry:
 
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PadawanBater

Guest
doc111 said:
I used to in my younger days (which is why I went into the field I went into-so I could help people)but I realized that is unrealistic and not possible. Especially as the world's population grows. Farmland is becoming scarcer and scarcer and there are more mouths to feed. :cry:
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I've considered that. I'm just a stupid kid with no training in engineering or anything and I have basic ideas to solve that problem, I can't imagine what the experts in the field are coming up with... If our government spent money on projects like that, starvation and food shortages would be a thing of the past, everyone would eat and millions of jobs would be created, it would skyrocket the economy with the amounts of exports... All of this is totally beneficial for everyone involved and future generations.
 
RickWhite

RickWhite

Well-Known Member
PadawanBater said:
Are you of the opinion that everyone is born with exactly the same amount of equal opportunities and natural potential?
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Of course not. Nobody can control natural potential. Government's role is to ensure that we have the same opportunities as a matter of law, but not as a matter of practicality. In other words, it is not the role of Government to ensure that life deals everyone the same cards.

But I am of the opinion that regardless of what cards one is dealt, one can, if they are of proper mind, play their cards wisely and achieve great success. What is most unfortunate, is that many people are born into bad homes and never achieve the proper mind because of it.

In contrast, children born into good homes, even when very poor, have the advantage of a proper mind which is one of the best resources a person can have in life.
 
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