Greed
Greed is an insatiable desire for material gain or social value, such as status or power.
Nature of greed
The initial motivation for greed and actions associated with it may be the promotion of personal or family survival. It may at the same time be an intent to deny or obstruct competitors from potential means or future opportunities; therefore being insidious or tyrannical and having a negative connotation. Alternately, the purpose could be defense or counteractive response to such obstructions being threatened by others.Modern economic thought frequently distinguishes greed from self-interest, even in its earliest works, and spends considerable effort distinguishing the line between the two. By the mid-19th century – affected by the phenomenological ideas of Hegel – economic and political thinkers began to define greed inherent to the structure of society as a negative and inhibitor to the development of societies. Keynes wrote, "The world is not so governed from above that private and social interest always coincide. It is not so managed here below that in practice they coincide." Both views continue to pose fundamental questions in today's economic thinking.
Weber posited that the spirit of capitalism integrated a philosophy of avarice coloured with utilitarianism. Weber also says that, according to Protestant ethic, "Wealth is thus bad ethically only in so far as it is a temptation to idleness and sinful enjoyment of life, and its acquisition is bad only when it is with the purpose of later living merrily and without care."
As a secular psychological concept, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs. The degree of inordinance is related to the inability to control the reformulation of "wants" once desired "needs" are eliminated. It is characterized by an insatiable desire for more, but also a dissatisfaction with what one currently has. Erich Fromm described greed as "a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction". An individual's tendency to be greedy can be seen as a personality trait that can be measured. With measures like these, greed has been found to be related to financial behavior, to unethical behavior, and to negatively relate to well-being.
Views of greed
In animals
Animal examples of greed in literary observations are frequently the attribution of human motivations to other species. The dog-in-the-manger, or piggish behaviours are typical examples. Characterizations of the wolverine remark both on its outsized appetite, and its penchant for spoiling food remaining after it has gorged.Ancient views
Ancient views of greed abound in nearly every culture. In Classical Greek thought; pleonexy is discussed in the works of Plato and Aristotle. Pan-Hellenic disapprobation of greed is seen by the mythic punishment meted to Tantalus, from whom ever-present food and water is eternally withheld. Late-Republican and Imperial politicians and historical writers fixed blame for the demise of the Roman Republic on greed for wealth and power, from Sallust and Plutarch to the Gracchi and Cicero. The Persian Empires had the three-headed Zoroastrian demon Aži Dahāka as a fixed part of their folklore. In the Sanskrit Dharmashastras the "root of all immorality is lobha.", as stated in the Laws of Manu . In early China, both the Shai jan jing and the Zuo zhuan texts count the greedy Taotie among the malevolent Four Perils besetting gods and men. North American Indian tales often cast bears as proponents of greed. Greed is also personified by the fox in early allegoric literature of many lands.Greed was often imputed as a racial pejorative by the ancient Greeks and Romans; as such it was used against Egyptians, Punics, or other Oriental peoples; and generally to any enemies or people whose customs were considered strange. By the late Middle Ages the insult was widely directed towards Jews.
In the Books of Moses, the Ten Commandments of God are written in the book of Exodus, and again in Deuteronomy ; two of these particularly deal directly with greed, prohibiting theft and covetousness. These commandments are moral foundations of not only Judaism, but also of Christianity, Islam, Unitarian Universalism, and the Baháʼí Faith among others. The Quran advises do not spend wastefully, indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils..., but it also says do not make your hand chained to your neck..." The Christian Gospels quote Jesus as saying, ""Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions", and "For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.".
Aristophanes
In the Aristophanes satire Plutus, an Athenian and his slave say to Plutus, the god of wealth, that while men may become weary of greed for love, music, figs, and other pleasures, they will never tire of greed for wealth:If a man has thirteen talents, he has all the greater ardour to possess sixteen; if that wish is achieved, he will want forty or will complain that he knows not how to make both ends meet.
Lucretius
The Roman poet Lucretius thought that the fear of dying and poverty were major drivers of greed, with dangerous consequences for morality and order:And greed, again, and the blind lust of honours
Which force poor wretches past the bounds of law,
And, oft allies and ministers of crime,
To push through nights and days with hugest toil
To rise untrammelled to the peaks of power—
These wounds of life in no mean part are kept
Festering and open by this fright of death.
Epictetus
The Roman Stoic Epictetus also saw the dangerous moral consequences of greed, and so advised the greedy to instead take pride in letting go of the desire for wealth, rather than be like the man with a fever who cannot drink his fill:Nay, what a price the rich themselves, and those who hold office, and who live with beautiful wives, would give to despise wealth and office and the very women whom they love and win! Do you not know what the thirst of a man in a fever is like, how different from the thirst of a man in health? The healthy man drinks and his thirst is gone: the other is delighted for a moment and then grows giddy, the water turns to gall, and he vomits and has colic, and is more exceeding thirsty. Such is the condition of the man who is haunted by desire in wealth or in office, and in wedlock with a lovely woman: jealousy clings to him, fear of loss, shameful words, shameful thoughts, unseemly deeds.
St. Ambrose
In his exegesis on Naboth Ambrose of Milan writes "omnium est terra, non diuitam, sed pauciores qui non utuntur suo quam qui utuntur", translated by Pope Paul VI as " The earth belongs to everyone, not only to the rich." His belief is that our concern for one another is the force which creates society and holds it together; and that avarice destroys this bond.Ancient China
, the semi-legendary founder of Taoism, was critical of the desire for profit over social good. In the Tao Te Ching, Laozi observes that "the more implements to add to their profit that the people have, the greater disorder is there in the state and clan."Xunzi believed that selfishness and greed were fundamental aspects of human nature and that society must endeavor to suppress these negative tendencies through strict laws. This belief was the basis of legalism, a philosophy that would become the prevailing ideology of the Qin dynasty and continues to be influential in China today.
Conversely, the philosopher Yang Zhu was known for his embrace of total self-interest. However, the school of Yangism did not specifically endorse greed; rather, it emphasized a form of hedonism where individual well-being takes precedence over all else.
Mencius was convinced of the innate goodness of human nature, but nevertheless warned against the excessive drive towards greed. Like Laozi, he was worried about the destabilizing and destructive effects of greed: "In a case where the lord of a state of ten thousand chariots is murdered, it must be by a family with a thousand chariots. In a case where the lord of a state of a thousand chariots is murdered, it must be by a family with a hundred chariots. One thousand out of ten thousand, or one hundred out of a thousand, cannot be considered to not be a lot. But if righteousness is put behind and profit is put ahead, one will not be satisfied without grasping ."
Medieval Europe
Augustine
In the fifth century, St. Augustine wrote:Greed is not a defect in the gold that is desired but in the man who loves it perversely by falling from justice which he ought to esteem as incomparably superior to gold