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What is Greed?

by Pat Pending

These days, we hear a lot about greed.  We all seem to know that it is a bad thing, but what exactly is greed, and what, if anything, should be done about it?

Webster defines "greed" as an excessive desire for getting or having, esp. wealth; desire for more than one needs or deserves.

That sounds very sensible on its face, but how do we know what is excessive?  Who gets to decide how much anyone needs or deserves?  None of us think we have too much. We know that we work hard to earn what we have, and we use our resources wisely to support our families and our communities.  How could anyone think of us as greedy?  But, from the point of view of someone in a third world country who earns $500 per year, every person living in the U.S. appears to be extremely wealthy and so, according to Webster, we are all greedy.  Surely, that can't be true!

So how do we know what is excessive and greedy?  If you have more money or possessions than the average person, is that excessive?  Would that be more than the U.S. average or more than the world average?  Is ten times the average excessive?  Is Bill Gates greedy because he is extremely wealthy, or is he alright because his software company has produced products that have dramatically improved the entire world economy?  Is your boss greedy because he didn't give you a raise, or are you greedy because you demanded a raise and bought your clothes on sale, not paying full price to support the workers who produced them?  The truth is that there is no objective way of saying how much wealth is too much.  "Greed", like "beauty", is in the eye of the beholder. 

Because "greed" does not have a clear, objective definition, and because it is a very emotionally charged word, people are able to use it to confuse others and trick them into supporting very harmful policies.  We don't know exactly what "greed" is, but we know it is bad, and we think we ought to do something about it.  So, for example, if a business is identified as being greedy, that serves as justification for using government force to punish and regulate the business.  If a person is called "greedy", we somehow think that it would be virtuous to relieve him of his "excess" property.  But, unless that person has obtained his property through force or fraud, he should have every right to keep his own property, no matter how much he has.  "Relieving" him of his "excess" property is simply a fancy phrase for stealing.  None of us are in favor of stealing, because we know it is wrong, but, when people throw around terms like "greed", we become confused and begin to think that it is alright to steal, as long as we are stealing from a "greedy" person.

If we want to be able to think clearly about issues, we need to avoid the use of confusing, emotionally charged words like "greed".  If someone is doing something that we think is wrong, we need to identify exactly what the wrong activity is and then deal with it.  For example, if Arthur Andersen was approving financial reports that were lies, that did not meet accounting standards, and that defrauded investors, then its activity certainly was wrong and illegal.  Calling Arthur Andersen "greedy" does not help clarify the issue at all.  Maybe we think professional athletes or entertainers make too much money, and we would be inclined to call them "greedy".  However, as long as they are earning their money without the use of force or fraud, we really should have no quarrel with them.  It might make us feel better to call them "greedy", but it certainly would not justify our taking actions to "relieve" them of their "excess property". 

What is somewhat amusing is that the people who are most apt to use words like "greed" to describe others frequently are the most apt to want to obtain what others have without working for it.  (Perhaps the greediest people are the ones most likely to use "greed" to describe others!)

You might be saying, "why be so picky about a simple little word?"  But words really do matter, because they affect our understanding of the world.  The concept of "greed" and of "having more than you need" is the basis for the entire school of socialist thought, justifying theft (the elimination of private property rights) and the end of respect for the individual.  The idea that you can have "more than you need" or "more than you deserve", even though you have earned it in the free market without using force or fraud, has been the justification for unspeakable horrors.  Millions of people have been killed by communist governments for the purpose of eliminating "excesses" and "greed".  And, since they fell into a trap created by ill-defined, emotionally-charged words like "greed", no doubt the murderers felt very virtuous about their actions.

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