Finally: The Death of "Greed Is Good"
It's not all about the Benjamins anymore, baby.
Although it is still the defining principle in many people's lives, the concept that "Greed is Good," is dead. It rose to its despicable zenith in tandem with the rise of Reagan, and has been the guiding principle of industry, finance and government ever since.
Greed has been with us since the dawn of time and will remain, but in cyclical bursts, greed destroys enough to make those in the path of the inevitable result of unchecked greed take notice and do something about it.
Like regulations on how much greed is allowed.
Greed brought us to this place...unregulated, untrammeled, vicious greed. Greed has no morals or ethics. Greed has no regard for others. Greed feeds only the greedy and feeds on every thing and every one within grasping distance.
This Christmas Eve there will be no ghosts of the past, Christmas or otherwise, disturbing the sleep of the greedy. The greedy will be in danger of losing a percentage of their riches as a result of their greed. The rest of us feel a primal danger, one that most of us have never felt.
Yes, fear is upon the land. The fear of not being able to keep a roof over your head. Of not knowing where to turn when you watch your sources of income fall, one after another in the twinkling of an eye.
The week before the crash of 2008, I had been hired to write industrial presentation scripts for a company which was very successful at making them. They told me I could expect maybe five a week, if I could handle that. I assured them I could. That was on a Thursday, as the stock market crashed.
The following Monday went by without a word. Then Tuesday. I emailed them on Wednesday and got a worrisome replay on Thursday that said, "Stuff is hitting the fan this week. Clients are pulling out before the initial interview. Waiting for news, as far as what the fallout is, but things are much different than just two weeks ago. I'm sorry Tom... I'll give you news as I get it."
I replied, "That was one chilling email." The reply? "Word."
On Thursday, I got an email which said that the company had lost so much of its upcoming business over the past week that would not need my services. Two weeks later another company, for whom I had been writing for a year-and-a-half fired my editor and was going to re-think its whole operation. I'm still waiting for my last check from them.
My story is being repeated over and over throughout America. The root of our misery is greed and the greedy.
And President Obama says it's going to get worse before it gets better.
The safety net is in place for the greedy who caused this mess. Where is the safety net for the rest of us? There is no place under the TARP for us to get out of the rain and cold.
The Greed Is Good pack are thieves. They've stolen our money, our hope and any sense of safety we had. And then we rewarded their greed with more money.
It's a cliché to some of us, others may have never heard it, but I will paraphrase Woody Guthrie who said, "Some will rob you with a shotgun and some with a fountain pen."
Or a handful of keystrokes.
For now, the concept that "Greed Is Good," has been discredited and for at least the next four years, we will have an executive branch of government which at least considers the rest of us.
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Perhaps for Christmas,McCain could turn one of his houses into an affordable living complex.
I sympathize with the message of the article however to say that Greed is responsible is incomplete. Greed is only a subcategory for a much larger picture that involves human beings with at best well developed intellects but immature emotionally. We are stuck in our heads and have lost touch with our hearts. The mind tends to separate and the heart unites and we don't value the wisdom of the heart or of true feelings (not sentimentality). That is only one way of looking at this. Another way is to say that we are immature in terms of moral values and don't really promote healthy human values. Yet another way of looking at this is that we are a blame and fear base society. When in fear it is everyone for themselves.
It hard though to see beyond fear without addressing spiritual or existential issues but still possible. Generally most people I know that can look at their fear and still keep their hearts open to the world have a spiritual belief of some kind or another (but not all).
I believe that in general greed is mostly connected to emotionally/heart immature humans living from a place of fear. We tend to want to change the world without changing ourselves but in the long run it doesn't work otherwise it would already show. We have tried that for a few thousand years already.
Could it be that the longer they wait to bailout the big 3 the more agitated the average person gets
All these built TOUGH crowed that work at the local dealership workers just take on a mob type attitude if they loose there job's... God forbid we loose NASCAR. So many people around the country that work at GM & Chrysler dealership that have been Good ol' boys and super pro right wing nut jobs just might rebel on the main street of small towns around rather than the people of the big city's. Well city folk are pissed too.. It's gonna be on mell of a hess.
I have been wondering myself where the NASCAR people stand on this. I actually signed up to blog at the NASCAR site. I haven't gone back in a few weeks, but the last time I was there no one was commenting on how boring it was going to be to have five or six Toyota teams racing each other when the Big 3 are no more. Junior Johnson, where are you now that we need you?
This sort of adolescent naivete' deserves a special award. It demonstrates why left wing philosophies continually fall on their a**es! Man is, by nature, greedy, selfish and narcissistic. Until you can drive those traits from the human gene pool, man will ALWAYS be those things. Otherwise, we wouldn't be Man! We'd be clover.
Adolescent naivete'? Sounds more applicable to the right wing that doesn't believe we need regulation and oversight to constrain what you consider to be man's natural greed, selfishness, and narcissism. That demonstrates why right wing philosophies continually fall on the a**es!
"Greed is good" was the motto of the villain in "Wall Street," not the hero.
As a workout and bankruptcy specialist I sometimes feel like a stopped clock. Stopped clocks are right twicce a day, workout people look like prophets once every twenty years.
Ladies and gentlemen, it was true a hundred years ago and it is true today: your government is for sale to the highest bidder. The only differnce is that the highest bidder used to be someone like Leland Stanford or John D. Rockefeller. Nowadays it is most often a foreign government or a multinational corporation. Not only has your birthright been sold, it has been mortgaged on your behalf and YOU and your grandchildren have to make the mortgage payments.
On another note, the Republicans seem to have gotten an idea from their takeover of a Louisiana emptied of Democrats after Kattrina. I think they believe if they can depopulate places like Michigan by killing the car industry they can force Blue Staters to move to Alabama, work for Alabama wages and bow to Alabama Fascists.
Dylan and woody both sang during a different time.. But what about now.. our history is now. We can sing a song but will we stand up and be counted. It's the turn of a new century and we still are under the oppression of the new age robber barons. Is this the 100 year cycle for the population of the world. this time we have the powerful navy guiding oil to our ports. What if their where an embargo on our oil supply?.
putting us in a similar position as japan in WWII but with our power being challenged in the Atlantic?
Man history! maybe instead of talking about these folk hero's of our past we could search out these talented people to stand up and find a way to promote them. Hell of a lot more media to go through to find these people but I know they are out their... Talk is cheap and we all afford it because we are Americans and it is our right! But is also our right to gather PEACEFULLY and have our say in current state our country.. Yes there will anarchist that's actions must be stifled. But that is one of the reasons that we should stand up now before the people in many low income cash strapped area's that are being oppressed by the banks $40 fee here and $40 fee their... Thou shall not steal. The banks do it to me and the cops are on their side.
Nobody said "theft is good". Most reasonable people would not take the "greed is good" slogan literally. Even in the movie, it was created most for shock value, and then explained away by the Michael Douglas character who equated "greed" with the desire to better ones condition in life.
Im not sure if this situation is greed motivated or the neo-cons trying to rid us of our middle class so we can compete with China and India.All i can say is hide your money under your mattresses and watch medicade and social security die real soon!
The only people feeling the real effects of this recession are the middle class and poor and they are the ones being blamed for it. The greedy rich and the elected officials are not feeling it at all. Just look at AIG. They are still getting their huge salaries and bonuses under other names. No the rich and big corporations are not willing to sacrifice anything. But it sure is being demanded of the poor and middle class. They want the American people to work for the same wages as are being pid in Mexico, India and China rather than the wages in those countries being raised to the equivalen of those paid in America. GSreed is still very much alive and prospering in the USA.
How is that "greed"?
Let me guess, overdog, you have a job and money in the bank. The financial institutions and mega-corporations, who caused the meltdown because of yes, greed, by selling worthless "financial instruments", are still showing greed by using the bailout money to bolster the bottom line and pay dividends and bonuses instead of using it to ease the credit crisis and loan money to small business, as was intended by the Congress.
Word.
Corporate Greed is an infection. Everything that man controls is fueled by corporate greed.. We have wars that kill many around the world for no other reason than corporate greed.
I am stunned by people like Joe the Plumber (white men who have no piece of the American pie) who vote for republicans. Republicans enable corporate greed. They get white middle and lower class voters to support them by dividing the races. You sickos who vote republican are not voting for white supremacy, you are voting for Corporate Greed. You got what you deserved, but the rest of us didn't.
If you don't believe me, ask Cornel West, or Little Richard.
Ed Graham
Don't forget about the wedge issues of abortion, gay marriage, etc., that the Republicans use to get the middle and lower classes to vote for them. There are individuals who will vote solely based on those issues, regardless of what will happen to them and their neighbors when the economy is crashing down around them. They only care if the candidate is anti-choice or anti-gay. People need to wake up and pay attention!
What about "sole proprietor" greed? How about the greed of consumers that live far beyond their means, and then expect their neighbors to bail them out? You don't need to look too far to find greed: it suffuses our society at EVERY level.
There are $1 Trillion dollars in Credit Default Swaps aide bets out there that GM will go under. This has been one of the most popular CDS side bets for the last 4 years. When GM goes under a lot of players out there are going to make a ton of money. You will never see this covered by the MSM nor is it mentioned in ANY of the stories about the Bailout. How dumb do they think we are? I have never believed in conspiracy theories. Now I am really starting to wonder? Why haven't these CDS financial nuclear weapons been declared completely illegal except for the people who actually own the debt and their valid counterparties? Paulson's entire actions for the last four months have been to preposition liquidity into the banking system so the protected banks can pay out on them without going under like Bear-Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie, Freddie, WaMu, Merill Lynch, etc. is anyone getting this? It is hidden in plain sight.
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Who would take the other side of that bet?
Tom,
on the contrary
I think Greed is Good
But rather than try to suppress greed, what if we channeled and amplified it, completely embraced it with renewed vigor. Unfettered greed expanding across the enterprise into every nook and cranny in pursuit of:
* A greed for innovation.
* A greed for profitable customers.
* A greed for investors that share in a desire for long term value creation.
* A greed for employees with a passion for customer centricity.
* A greed for customers that act/think like partners.
A longer post and viewpoint is
available to interested readers
http://mir
cheers
Miro
As the Senate's rejection of the auto bailout makes clear, greed is only good when movers and shakers exhibit it. Greed doesn't look so good on, say, union auto workers. It only sits well on those wearing $3000 suits. Greed is the ultimate "virtue" in a society like ours; we can't cheapen it by letting it occur too frequently amongst the people. That's why we have a Congress: to monitor the distribution of things like greed and wealth and make sure they don't become too commonplace. And, by God, they're doing a bang-up job of it!
Yeah, it wasn't greedy to demand 95% pay while you're laid off. Good grief.
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