Hieronymus Bosch, 1485Of the seven Deadly Sins -- Pride, gluttony, envy, lust, greed and sloth -- Greed has been grabbing the latest headlines.
In the 1987 film , 'Wall Street,' financial shark Gordon Gecco (Michael Douglas)speaks the movie's mantra -- 'Greed is good. Greed Works. Greed Sells'. Now, 20 years later, 'Wall Street' seems more documentary than expose. This is not your fault!
Sure, you're greedy - it's a human trait -- but let's examine the core of that word. There's greed, and then there's GREED,. Small-letter greed is a luxury car, a summer house, someone to cut your grass. Big-letter greed is three or more cars, a villa in Europe, a yacht. Small-letter greed is democracy; big-letter greed is oligarchy.
It's all about words. The end game in a democracy is inclusionary; when one accumulates Billy Gates-sized money, one looks to give back something, to help out the human race. An oligarchy feathers its own nest. How many times do we have to hear the Rush Limbaughs of the world decry 'touchy-feely' people? How many times do we have to listen to them extol the 'virtue' of simply making money for its own sake?
Wall Street in the last eight years didn't give a fig about John Q. Public. Minus any effective regulation, they simply invented more ways to make money; if it eventually burned the average citizen... hey, it's collateral damage.
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