SWGA Politics

Greed Ain’t All Bad

In the movie Wall Street staring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen, Douglas’ character of Gordon Gecko uttered one of the most memorable lines in film history.  “Greed is good.”  While that movie is, ultimately, a morality tale expressing the evils of greed, the character or Gordon Gecko touched on one of the great truths of reality. 

Greed can be good. 

Now, it’s important to understand that greed can lead to all kinds of bad things.  Crimes like robbery, murder, and fraud are ultimately found on the other side of greed.  And yet, every day we find ourselves confronted by questions and we tend to slide more towards the greedy answers.  Should we take the higher paying job?  Should I charge more for this nick-knack on eBay?  A whole host of questions bombard us daily, and we often go with the more greedy answer. 

While greed has its dark side, it can also appear virtuous.  Greed has ultimately led to our entire modern way of life, contrary to what many would tell you.  Things like personal computers weren’t marketed to people based on how much it would help kids with their homework or help organize the household finances.  No, it was produced and sold to generate someone a profit.  Nothing more, nothing less. 

It has also been the primary reason why we have many of our doctors and lawyers, engineers and architects.  While many may have indeed been fascinated with the subject, so fascinated with it that they would have entered the field regardless of potential earnings, most entered into those fields based partially on the size of the paychecks they could expect later in life.  After all, without either nice sized potential earnings or a sincerely deep love of the subject matter, there is little motivation to complete the intensive and exhaustive studies required for any of these fields. 

It is only through what can best be described as greed can we find that our nation has been built.  From railroad tycoons to oil barons, from the computer hardware revolutionaries to the dot com millionaires, people of vision have shaped this nation into something our founders could truly be proud of.  But remember that no one did it primarily for love, but for money. 

Money may be the root of all evil, but it has been the root of invention and innovation.  The desire for has spurred not just technological or business tycoons, but also the artist.  J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has made her a billionaire.  The entire film industry, despite the leftists political leanings, is based on the accumulation of wealth and as a result we got things like Citizen Kane and Ben Hur. 

Our entire system and way of life is based on the desire for wealth, which most would term as greed.  We often expect altruism from our elites, that they should be more altruistic than we ourselves are because they have so much.  However, before you berate an actor for doing a movie just for the paycheck, keep in mind the last time you turned down a new job that paid more…especially when it’s only temp work.  

Greed has motivated this nation for centuries now to some extent.  Frankly, I look around at the wonderful world that the modern world actually is and all I can say is “Ah yes, greed is definitely good.”