Greedy U.S.A.

I keep hearing about greedy people these days. Pundits keep pointing to them as one of the solutions to our debt crisis. They make so much money, if we just taxed them more, they will never miss it and our debt crisis will be minimized. It seems the Warren Buffets’ of the world don’t pay their fair share. They don’t pay their workers enough. They don’t dole out enough in benefits. They are out to stomp on the rights of working men and women everywhere. They don’t deserve their money so it’s perfectly acceptable for others to determine who needs it more. I hear so much about these people I almost feel like there are more of ‘them’ then there are of ‘us.’ I’m left wondering if maybe capitalism does equals greed.

I’m further confused by the haphazard way in which greed is defined. Oil executives are greedy profiteers but bottled water manufacturers seem exempt from the label. Smartphone retailers load up monthly plans with various layers of fees with nary a complaint, but banks and other financial institutions profit on the backs of the common man. Drug companies are evil, but nobody mentions high-def TV profits. These stereotypes of evil oil, bank, and drug companies are ingrained in the culture by media elites who want divisive attitudes as a means to justify their social engineering. Even those of us who don’t believe it, still first think “big oil” when greedy executives are mentioned.

In a properly functioning capitalist economy, individuals make decisions based on their own self interest to produce goods and services which benefit their fellow man. There are two components to success: acting in your self interest and benefiting others. They are not mutually exclusive. When either part of the equation is missing, generally speaking, a person’s overall income will be lower than others who do both. The key to success then is doing something to benefit other people. This by very definition cannot be greedy behavior. This is perfectly rational. The best part is society benefits from all these individual decisions. In capitalism, most of the time, people cannot be successful unless they SERVE other citizens. Serving is the key to success. Ironic isn’t it? You don’t hear that on CNN do you?

Greedy people live everywhere. Greed exists in every institution, every government, every nation, and ultimately every human being. Greed is a part of the human condition and it cannot be extinguished. No matter what type of economic system studied rich and poor will be found. The gift of capitalism is its ability to collectively channel our “greedy” individual decisions into outcomes designed to benefit others. It is not a perfect system. It is better than anything else out there. In other economies there is no two way street. There is just greed. Let’s reconsider bashing the rich and spend our time figuring out how to better serve our fellow man so we might one day be rich ourselves.