Greed vs Envy

It's funny how the rich and CEOs and Wall Street act like they EARNED everything they have. Sure they earned a lot, that is true, but they also stole a lot more above that by bribing politicians to rig the rules in their favor.

 

That may be many things, but neither greed nor gluttony are among them, obviously.

How the hell can anything be taken from people who have nothing to begin with?

Maybe not, but if they could drop that...

...the overwhelming majority wouldn't have any of that either.

 

The motives of the corporate rich are easy and simple to understand. It's GREED, plain and simple. It's not rocket science.

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Who makes that determination? Well, the greedy, self absorbed, filthy rich person themselves. Who else?

 

The corporate thieves blame the bank for being there for them to rob, not themselves.

 

Actually it works across all fields and careers and I had not "skill sets" when I started working, they are learned throughout a lifetime.

Why would I base my career decisions of what all my fellow workers where I work do?

Why does it have to be immediate. I went to school both before and during my working life it is a lifetime thing not an immediate thing.

Not for long and for government to satisfy someones needs and envy they first have to take from someone who earned the money to do so which makes them very unsatisfied.

by depressing both, it is better for all of us when it gets out of the way

 

Greed is using child slave laborers in foreign countries while giving yourself $100 million bonuses.

Greed is paying ratings agencies to rate your crap securities AAA and sell them to investors across the world

Greed is storing your money in tax shelters that are only available to the wealthiest members of society

Greed is reducing your employees hours just so you don't have to pay for their healthcare as you continue to give executives 10s of millions of dollars in bonuses

Greed is approving $800k mortgages to a school bus driver knowing full well they can't pay it off if interest rates rise

There is a lot of greed going on. Not every rich person is greedy just like not every person who wants to change regulations and the tax code in order to prevent people from taking advantage of laborers and people just because they have access to the government and resources, are envious.

 

The greedsters would call that "just business" though. That's one major difference.

 

Re: Post #59

Taxcutter says:
Unions are acceptable as long as they utilize collective bargaining and strikes to further their goals.

Recruiting government to intervene is not acceptable.

 

So you want to get rid of the welfare state? Because that would match your criteria. But that alone wouldn't be enough. In America you should be able to achieve whatever you want. If you want to build rocket ships, go for it.

Extra work to pay government instead of spending time with family so someone else can stay home in a broken family is not "fine". The working married man could have a wife at home and live off of one salary if government didnt take so much.

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Where are these child slave laborers? Name one country that became rich and didnt have child labor in their history before they did so. Just one. Two straight forward questions, please don't dodge. No narratives about the glory of government etc...

 

Is this a serious question? Lol.

 

Greed also includes wanting to take more for yourself and leave everyone else with less. Greedy people in positions of power means they have the ability to rig the system to make sure this happens.

 

Was I not speaking English or something?

They are not the poorest, which is what you specified.

Fables can't be "known", only believed, hth.

I'm sure it is, to a certain sort of creature.

 

A lot of poor/lazy people confuse hard work with greed.

 

Envy also says "Those people don't work enough and are too happy with just enough to live on!" "That person is better looking than me!" "that person has a larger ____ than me!"

and all sorts of other things....

Ever read the Count of Monte Cristo?

Envy can come from the highest of positions.

 

The number of people who make a pile without government is exactly zero.

Anyone who think success comes without some sort of help from government, directly or indirectly, is ignorant and ungrateful with a warped sense of entitlement.

 

Then why you revolted? if the government is not any better ask the queen of England to take you back.
Well when you are giving boatloads of money to an industry you get to have a say , no ?

 

My problem with that statement is, it's a subjective statement. Anyone can say that, relative to someone else.

For example, I've been to Europe. I've seen places in Europe, where the standard of living is so low, that those people would look at the minimum wage US McDonald's worker, and say what a bunch of spoiled greed rich kids they are.

I just posted an article in another thread, where they determined that $34,000 a year, puts you in the top 1% of wage earners in the whole world.

So then you have to ask..... isn't that enough? You are elite of the elite in the world. 99% of the planet lives a more meager life than you. Can't you be saticified with that?

Again, it's all relative.

So instead, I determined that I have no problem with people *earning* more, no matter how much more they earn... as long as they earn it.

Greed, is wanting more, without having to earn it.

I had a manager decide he wanted a new 6-string guitar. He got a part time job for 2 months, and earned up enough to buy the guitar. He wanted more, he earned more, and he got more. I have no problem with this.

What I have a problem with is people who don't want to earn it, and think their mere existence in our society somehow entitles them to more, simply because they suck air. None of us is entitled to anything except life, liberty and the *PURSUIT* of happiness.

 

Even YOUR views are subjective; fine. How about also realizing that the wealth inequality in American society is a problem for the same.

 

Yeah, but that's what people who don't want to work, say.

"Wealth inequality is wrong!" Says the fat guy sitting on the lazyboy, watching TV.

I've never met someone who worked their butts off, that was poor. Never.

Further, universally speaking, the more equal wealth is, the worse off and more impoverished people are.

You never have "equally wealthy" you can only have "equally poor", because the fact is, not everyone produces things of value to society. Flipping a burger over never has been, nor ever will be, as valuable an activity as building yachts, or designing cars, or whatever.

Thus the burger flipper will never be paid as much as those who make those things, and nor should they.

 

Lmao!! Do you guys literally just make up whatever you want and actually believe it?

 

This thread is a great example of how living in the tunnel-visioned left/right paradigm will have you setting up all kinds of false choices. Here we are actually comparing two of the Seven Deadly Sins and saying, "That one's not so bad". Just like virtually every election between a Republican and a Democrat, you are left not only choosing between two evils, but actively promoting one.

Envy says, "I want YOUR stuff."

Greed says, "I want ALL your stuff."

Notice how they are similar . Realize that they are not mutually exclusive; sometimes they are complementary. Maybe the reason Mr. Howell is so GREEDY as to want a bigger yacht is because he is ENVIOUS of Mr. Burns, who has one.

 

I envy your post.

 

What is the term for "I want the same thing you have but I want to earn it". You see a person with a nice car and you ask him "what do you do for a living" and he says "I work for company X as a stock broker". If this sounds familiar, this is from the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" (Will Smith). I don't like using either 'envy' or 'greed' for this person's desire for the nice car because those terms have become synonymous with evil. It isn't evil to desire nice things and work to earn them because you are not hating the person that has what you want and wish to earn nor are you going to commit a crime to obtain it.