If greed means we want more than we actually need then I think it is human nature to be greedy (i.e., to want more of something perhaps money or recognition at work or love or one more candy bar). If greed means we are exploiting others than I don’t think greed is good. If greed is a zero sum game where you win but somebody else loses I don’t think that is good for society.
The right question is “Is there a point where greed is so excessive that it is a bad thing, and if so, where is that point.”
Some people might say "Greed is never a bad thing, in any case.’ However, those people are basically arguing that killing someone and taking their stuff is ok, because it was motivated by greed, and greed is good. If you think that killing someone and taking their stuff because you want it is a bad thing, then there is a point where greed is so excessive that it is bad.
so your point is… don’t work in finance?
Neither, the answer is (3) greed in the hands of the legal entity known as the corporation.
It’s fine to say greed is a human trait and can’t be eliminated, but in normal circumstances it is limited by morality, and by scale (one person only has so much influence). What the US did to remove those limitations, was to create the corporation. This entity REQUIRES that you maximize profit NO MATTER WHAT THE COST or you get replaced by someone who will. It is no longer “your” greed, it is your job description. And it scales up infinitely. Those legal entities grew in power, and now control the government (the only force that could think of the whole instead of just the individual).
So now we know what happens when you do that – you get a runaway system, cannibalizing the masses, a total mess. So that experiment failed, next.
A corporation is an entity, just like a person is an entity. genius
i don’t think greed is good; i think tit-for-tat is good;
those saying stuff like greed is biological are wrong. Neither kumbaya nor dog-eat-dog are good or bad or appropriate descriptions of human behavior. There are many examples in evolutionary biology showing that a combination of self-interest and collaboration works best in the long run. I highly recommend Robert Sapolsky’s lectures on this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNnIGh9g6fA&list=PL150326949691B199
I agree that tit for tat is a sensible strategy and a nice way to combine cooperation and assertiveness. Robert Axelrod’s work on the topic is fascinating as well as informative.
Which leads to another questions: are tits with tats good??
Greed = Self Interest
Did you wake up today in hopes of doing something more? If so, you’re greedy! You could have stayed in bed satisfied with what you did yesterday.
Why does it matter if greed is agreed to be good or bad? It’s like the argument about which personality trait is most desireable when in reality all of them have thier pluses and minuses and on a well fuctioning team you need a good balance of each personality.
Greed is not good nor bad.
yep tit for tat is good.
as for the latter question. i just had a conversation with a friend about this. i actually like girls with tats. my friend on the other hand finds them intimidating,
Disagree. Greed != Self Interest.
Greed can serve (a warped sense of) self interest, but that doesn’t mean that being self interested automatically makes you greedy.
You might as well say gluttony = self interest, but if being a glutton kills you, it is not in your self interest to be a glutton.
Most people’s definition of greed would be that it is wanting more than one’s fair share of [whatever the topic is]. No one is called greedy for expecting a slice of the birthday cake when it is their birthday (or even someone else’s). People are called greedy when they want most of a cake that was intended to be shared. We can’t really have a notion of what it is to be greedy without some notion of what constitutes fairness, and this is why some behaviors that would be greedy in some contexts are not considered greedy in others: the expectations of what is fair are different in different contexts.
It is not by definition greedy to want what you need. It is not even greedy to want more than you need. It is greedy when taking what you want has negative impacts on other people’s ability to satisfy their needs, and that is why greedy is considered a bad word.
Greedy people have an interest in conflating greed with ordinary wanting of things, because then they confuse people into thinking that greed is good.
Uhh I have no idea what this means.