We let the special interests put their thumbs on the economic scales. We’ve excused and even embraced an ethic of greed. Barack Obama, Cooper Union speech
A free market was never meant to be a free licence to take whatever you can get whenever you can get it. ibid.
Well first of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaux. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system. Milton Friedman
The modern transnational corporation is an immortal, soulless collusion of greed that reduces everything it touches to a dollar value. In law a corporation is a person, able to own property and resources just as a person can only, it seems, not responsible for the deaths it causes. Tony Gosling, website introduction
Avarice, the spur of industry, is so obstinate a passion, and works its way through so many real dangers and difficulties, that it is not likely to be scared by an imaginary danger, which is so small that it scarcely admits of calculation. David Hume, Essays: Moral and Political 1741-2
Socialism means that the means of production are owned and controlled by society so that what is produced can be shared out according to people’s needs. Socialism is founded on the idea of equality, which means that most people will get the same.
The basic objections to such a system have been the same ever since it was first conceived, and the arguments against them are still very much the same too.
Human nature, it is said, is fundamentally opposed to such a system, since human nature is selfish and greedy. In the end the ‘old Adam’ will out, and will wreck any egalitarian system.
Poor ‘old Adam’ is always hauled out to justify the horrors of capitalism. Two hundred years of exploitation don’t sound so bad if you can put it down to human nature. In fact, however, people’s natures are not at all like those of speculators in the City of London. Indeed it is hard, even in the City of London, to come across people whose natures are dominated entirely by greed, selfishness and a hatred of the rest of the human race. There are at least as many examples in everyday life of generosity and self-sacrifice as there are of selfishness and greed. Paul Foot, The Case for Socialism ch5
Capitalism is an organized system to guarantee that greed becomes the primary force of our economic system and allows the few at the top to get very wealthy and has the rest of us riding around thinking we can be that way, too – if we just work hard enough, sell enough Tupperware and Amway products, we can get a pink Cadillac. Michael Moore
Capitalism is against the things that we say we believe in – democracy, freedom of choice, fairness. It’s not about any of those things now. It’s about protecting the wealthy and legalizing greed. Michael Moore
Greed has been with human beings for ever. We have a number of things in our species that you would call ‘the dark side’, and greed is one of them. If you don’t put certain structures in place or restrictions on those parts of our being that come from that dark place, then it gets out of control. Michael Moore
It’s not the ... oil and the filth and the poisonous chemicals that are the real cause of pollution, Brigadier. It’s simply greed. Doctor Who
We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet. Stephen Hawking
The risks in antiques fraud are relative. Other criminals risk the absolute. You’ve never heard of a fraudster involved in a shoot-out, of the ‘Come and get me, copper!’ sort. Or of some con artist needing helicopter gunships to bring him. No, we subtle-mongers do it with the smile, the promise, the hint. And we have one great ally: greed. And make no mistake. Greed is everywhere, like weather. Jonathan Gash, The Great California Game
When I behold the havoc and the spoil
Which, even within the compass of my days,
Is made through every quarter of this isle,
In woods and groves, which were this kingdom’s praise;
And when I mind with how much greediness
We seek the present gain in everything,
Not caring (so our lust we may possess)
What damage to posterity we bring ...
What our forefathers planted, we destroy:
Nay, all men’s labours, living heretofore,
And all our own, we lavishly employ
To serve our present lusts, and for no more. George Wither, A Collection of Emblems, 1635
To Nature, all greed is insufficient. Seneca
Greed’s worst point is its ingratitude. Seneca
Greed and Competition are not the result of immutable human temperament ... Greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being created and amplified ... The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive. Bernard Lietaer, founder of EU currency system
For they are a wicked congregation ... Their strength is as smoke that vanishes ... Every creature of greed shall wither quickly away like a flower at harvest time. The War Scroll
Randolph: Mother always said you were greedy.
Mortimer: She meant it as a compliment. Trading Places 1983 starring Dan Aykroyd & Eddie Murphy & Ralph Bellamy & Don Ameche & Denholm Elliott & Jamie Lee Curtis & Kristin Holby & Paul Gleason & Robert Curtis-Brown & James Belushi et al, director John Landis
Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction. Erich Fromm
Greed is so destructive. It destroys everything. Eartha Kitt
Greed is the lack of confidence of one’s own ability to create. Vanna Bonta
She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honour, for love. George R R Martin, A Dance with Dragons
Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive. John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society
I do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth fifty million of dollars, or ten million of dollars, in a city full of want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can withstand all that, and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or thirty million of dollars, is past my comprehension. I do not see how he can do it. I should not think he could do it any more than he could keep a pile of lumber on the beach, where hundreds and thousands of men were drowning in the sea. Robert G Ingersoll, The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization. Friedrich Engels, cited Psychology Today
The covetous man is ever in want. Horace
Greedy for the property of others, extravagant with his own. Sallust, Catiline ch5
They knew that the money they accumulated was foul with the sweat of their brother men, and wet with the tears of little children, but they were deaf and blind and callous to the consequences of their greed. Devoid of any ennobling thought or aspiration, they grovelled on the filthy ground, tearing up the flowers to get at the worms. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
Who was responsible for the downfall of Enron? Only a few years ago Enron was the nation’s seventh largest corporation. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, written McLean & Elkind & Gibney, 2005
Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling had built their own plush state rooms. They were known as the smartest guys in the room. Captains of a ship too powerful to go down. ibid.
News of shredding at Enron raised more questions. ibid.
20,000 employees had lost their jobs. ibid.
In Washington, Lay became part of a new crusade to liberate businessmen from the rules and regulations of government. ibid.
George Bush senior helped secure billions in government subsidies for Enron International. ibid.
In 1987 two oil traders made bets for Enron on whether the price of oil would rise or fall ... Enron Oil always seemed to win. ibid.
At the board meeting the auditors told Lay that [Louis] Borget and his traders were manipulating earnings, destroying daily trading records and probably gambling way beyond their limits. ibid.
Lay encouraged his traders to gamble more. ibid.