bleechers's Blog

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.”

Greed can be defined, in my opinion, in two very different ways. Greed is the opposite of contentment and greed is the desire to obtain by any means that which you are not willing to earn. Both conditions are deplorable (unless, of course, one is not content with his “goodness” or his “kindness”).

Can we tell who is being greedy? Unless someone says he is greedy, we have no way to know. Greed can manifest itself in different ways. Some are illegal, some are not. Some hurt other people, some do not.

Hard to Judge

We can look at someone’s actions and usually agree if the act itself is wrong, yet judging motive can be much harder. Juries are often called upon to determine why someone took the life of another. We can see that someone is dead, we have evidence as to who is responsible, but we must determine whether the death was planned or accidental; whether the killer was in his right mind or not; whether the death was the result of anger, self-defense or malice. Not always an easy task.

A man can hate all he wants. Let’s say a man hates Belgians. He seethes in hate against Belgians. Well, as long as he harms no Belgians or threatens them in any way, his hatred is not illegal. He’s free to hate Belgians all he wants. Like greed, hatred is wicked, unproductive and foolish, but it is not illegal.

 Greed may or may not result in illegal activity. Just as we cannot punish people because we think they’re too angry or we believe they have hearts filled with malice, neither can we punish what we perceive to be greed. Being greedy may be wicked, it may be unproductive, it may be foolish, but in and of itself, it is not illegal. We cannot punish perceived hate and we cannot punish perceived greed

Society Suffers Because of Greed

Our society suffers many ills because of greed. Combine the lack of contentment in greediness with a lack of self-discipline (or a lack of self-control) and the results range from petty crimes to assaults to treason. Greed can drive a man to betray his family, his community or his nation. Adultery and rape are symptoms of a lack of contentment. Someone always pays when greed raises its ugly head.

A rich man who seeks only more riches while failing to reward all the means that allow him to profit will soon find that he is destroying his own foundation. The car industry in the US became fat and occupied itself with only profit. Management and Labor fought over the huge amounts of money generated by the growing economy after WWII. Customers were given inferior products and inferior service. When the Japanese car invasion began in earnest in the 1970s, Detroit was slow to respond. A once great city has been reduced to a rusting museum.

Greed Often Leads to Laziness Rather Than to Contentment

So many were lifted by the success of the auto industry; thousands upon thousands of families were fed, housed and clothed by the car companies. Success is not greed, but we must be careful not to let success breed “entitlement.” Detroit thought it was entitled to its wealth, but a competitor committed to its customers felled the giant.

A poor man can be just as greedy as a rich man. A man who demands more and more from the public coffers while offering nothing in return is extorting from his neighbors. Politicians greedy for power and others living lives of waste (Jesse Jackson once said that many poor people are poor because they have poor habits) took the massive revenue gains resulting from JFK’s tax cuts and initiated the disastrous “War on Poverty.”

Trillions of dollars later, we have destroyed the inner cities, destroyed the family unit, rewarded sloth, rewarded immorality and have encouraged greed. We have groups that take to the streets demanding that property be taken from some and given to others. No matter how many trillions are spent, the greed only widens buoyed by the power of law. The government has no job. It takes its money from the hard work of others. Greed for power has led it to steal more and more of its citizens’ labor while accusing those who do the work and who generate the wealth of greed. Shameful.

Baghdad is safer than parts of DC, Chicago, Philadelphia and LA; all because greed has gone unchecked.   

Desiring freedom is not greed. Desiring a better life for one’s family is not greed. Desiring to run a successful business is not greed. These are the natural desires which beat in the hearts of men. I fault no one who honestly uses public funds as a safety net because he finds no other option. Others have no means of caring for themselves and seek not in greed but in need. But safety nets were never meant to be beds of comfort for the greedy.

We long for the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All these natural desires become greed when we desire those things without the will to earn them or pursue them to the benefit of no one but ourselves.