Greed is ingrained in our societies and it is escalating. Greed for comfort, greed for resources, greed for wealth, greed for power.
Greed in modern capitalist societies really stated to ramp up in the 1980’s and was personified in the movie Wall Street by the character Gordon Gekko who says:
The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms.
Of course greed has always been around and there has always been greedy people but by-and-large greed was frowned upon in the past and greedy people were generally reviled. Activities such as usury and profiteering were considered unscrupulous and sinful. These days greed is admired and often fêted because people expect it. It has been normalised.
If your goal is wealth you are greedy. If you have more wealth than you need you are greedy. Many people take whatever they can without considering the consequences. They do this because it is the spirit of the age. The greediest become more and more powerful because wealth is power. This means that the poor are caught in the cultural greed trap (also known as the rat-race). The envious poor strive for more but they are squeezed by the wealthy who want even more still.
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed. – Gandhi
Normalising greed
In an interview, the cognitive pyschologist, Steven Pinker told the story of how, when he was young, he embraced Anarchism for a short time. Pinker’s friend had introduced him to the idea which he embraced, at least philosophically. Then about a year or so later, the police in Toronto (where Pinker lived) went on strike and there was a wave of robbing houses and looting shops. This signalled to Pinker that people weren’t able to control themselves and needed to be to controlled by laws enforced by police. After having read several of his books on subjects covering psychology and cognition, I was surprised by Pinker’s naivety.
The reason people started looting in Toronto after the police went on strike is because they live in a society where looting (i.e. exploiting others) is normal. People tend to behave the way that others behave and treat people the same way that they are treated. When we are taken advantage of by greedy people in everyday life it normalises that greed. The greedy call the needy, bludgers; but is the greedy that bludge off the needy and make them needy.
Power from greed
It is doubly chimerical to build peace on economic foundations which, in turn, rest on the systematic cultivation of greed and envy, the very forces which drive men into conflict. – E. F. Schumacher
I think that greed relates to the need to manipulate and control. For example, Artificial Intelligence, the manipulation of information, is the consequence of greed. People want AI because they can make money. We don’t need AI – we are getting it because people can gain from it.
I think greed (and selfishness) is to do with ego; specifically it is the ego identifying with the power of wealth. If you identify with wealth then this is part of you then you will try to get as much as you can.
Greed undermines social cohesion; it fractures the types of convivial relationships people used to have with each other and with nature.
What is the answer?
“How could we even begin to disarm greed and envy? Perhaps by being much less greedy and envious ourselves; perhaps by resisting the temptation of letting our luxuries become needs; and perhaps by even scrutinising our needs to see if they cannot be simplified and reduced.” ― Ernst F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered
As Fritz Schumacher says we need to be less greedy and envious ourselves. We need to create a new rhetoric that says greed is not cool – whereas simplicity and sufficiency is cool.
We need to normalise generosity. There are undoubtedly plenty of selfless, generous people. Study after study show that poorer people are much more generous than richer people, for example, by giving to charities or volunteering.
As well as giving, sharing and volunteering there are many other things that we can do to reduce greed, both our own and others.
- Simple living is a key factor in reducing production, consumption, and therefore greed, overall.
- Being self-sufficient reduces the amount you need to purchase and therefore reduces the amount that will be produced by others.
- Purchase craft and artisan goods and services.
- By purchasing locally-produced goods we can undermine the greed of owners of large corporations who don’t live locally and may even live in a different country.
- Vote for political parties that support workers rights and equity, wealth taxes, and regulations on unfair commercial practices and corporate hegemony.