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 Interesting....here is my take on it, flame away! New
- Forum: LiquidLounge
Re: Answer me this, are the rich greedy? RobertT New
Date: May 18 2006, 21:20 GMT
From: RobertT
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The subject of happiness, ambition, opulent lifestyles that you cannot afford, etc seem to be used in the arguments.
None of that has anything to do with greed.
Greed. A benefit at the expense of others, unfairly.
Greed, in my opinion, does seem to be largely tied to a certain economic population more than others, but that is a unquantifiable argument so I cannot back it up other than with personal experience.
An example of why I do not believe that greed should be equated to wealth, is Oprah. I cant stand watching the girl, but it is obvious that she is incredibly wealthy, and at the same time has largely made her money without cheating, stealing, etc. She gives a HUGE amount of money to charities, I do not feel that she is greedy at all. Period. Somebody will probably find something to prove Oprah is the devil...but its just an example....nothing more. You get the point.
Should she, or any other person, stop trying to make more money (rather they need it or not) simply because if they do not make it there may be more for somebody else? Of course not. That's a crazy argument, wont fly.
Now, on the other hand, if a person that is otherwise wealthy chooses to work a ton of overtime or past a reasonable retirement age when they know that it will be at the expense if another person loosing their job. That's greedy, in my definition.
Here is the deal. I don't want this to sound self richeous, sorry if it does.
I have personally been both incredibly poor (worrying day and night about food and shelter), and what many would consider fairly wealthy, and everywhere in between.
I can say, without hesitation, that the dark times in my life when I was not the type of human being that I wanted to be was when I was poor. I was a greedy bastard! I do not feel that way about myself now. Why?
An example, at my own expense.
When I was working a few different jobs, I worked in construction for an electrical contractor. I was in the basement of a VERY wealthy mans home, running a control wire for his new 100k pool/hot tub. He was a professional tennis player or something, and had about 200 brand new rackets in his basement.
I remember, with great clarity, what went through my mind. I remember justifying taking one of those rackets, knowing that I could sell it to a friend of mine, and use the money to put gas in the car to get to work.
I remember this well, because I am so unbelievably ashamed of it, that I took one of the rackets under the premise that he was rich, and I was poor. He had so much, he would not miss it. The twenty bucks I would get, would mean the difference between being able to go to work on having to stay home or walk. It just didn't seem fair. I justified it in my mind over and over, he was a greedy fat cat that probably screwed people over to get to the top, and I was going to get a little bit of it.
Its impossible to overstate how bad I feel about that, and actually even did at the time. I was the greedy bastard. I took from others, to their detriment, unfairly, unethically, for personal gain.
I think that those with less, tend to use their plight as an excuse to be greedy. I think that during my life, there was a direct correlation between being in financial crisis and being greedy and unethical.
Perhaps being rich just makes it easier NOT to be greedy, but it doesn't change a thing.
Welfare, and its abuse, is based on greed.
Stealing from your employer (even if its time to type on boatertalk), is inherently greedy. You are taking a quantifiable thing (money/time) from somebody under false pretenses for personal gain. That's GREED!!!! Period. Fuck the rich, I will take whatever I can get away with. Greed, greed, greed.
Driving an SUV is greedy. So is an illegal alien coming to America to work, and taking his family so that they can have food on the table and health care for your babies. Greed. I would do the same thing, don't get me wrong, but you are taking from others and ya don't have it coming. Stealing and greed go hand in hand. All theft starts with greed.
Certainly, you will find exceptions. Many, many of the rich are VERY greedy. Many, many of the poor are VERY greedy. I would be willing to bet money though, that from a percentage basis, those with less make more greedy decisions than those with.
Anyway, it just seems ironic that so many people look down on those that have more money and call them greedy when they perhaps should be looking in the mirror.
Not trying to pass judgement, at all. I am flaming myself here really.
Hows THAT for starting trouble:) Its the truth though, from my perspective.
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- By the way... RobertT New
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