Greed

Last Monday I posted a lil piece excoriating the growing intellectual sloth of what was once a democratic representative republic (the USA) using the sloth of an electorate that simply will not be bothered to learn to read and do its own homework to be able to vote intelligently. ANd I pointed out that such sloth is one of a few critical moral issues killing what was once a democratic representative republic.

Today: greed. But not only as you may think of the moral failing we call by that name. Yes, the greed (and sloth) of both “Big Bidness” (including especially the big business of so-called labor unions) and workers alike are pointing the way to the ruin of our economy, and thus the ideal of a democratic representative republic.

Huh? How’s that? A few simple facts of life and a few trends: essential to a democratic representative republic is a working class, if you will. As many people working at jobs that contribute to the overall health of the economy and republic as possible. And that must include many manual labor jobs for a very simple reason: we are not Lake Wobegon where “all the children are above average”. By definition, half the population is below average. What happens when the jobs they are suited to be successful in are shipped overseas by stupid trade policy or by simply greedy, short-sighted number-crunchers is that the ability of the lefthand side of the bell curve (anyone objecting to my use of such imagery had better be really careful to be solid in argument, cos I’ll rip you a new one if you advance some stupid lefty argument without basis in fact) to hold productive jobs essential to the survival of a republic is greatly reduced… and, long-term, the progeny of those who make such bad policy or make such stupid, short-sighted, greedy offshoring decisions will curse their progenitors.

But that’s just one aspect of the greedy behavior that’s driving this country to ruin–although that alone would be enough to accomplish our ruin. Consider also the individuals, parents, children whose greed demands more, more, more material goods but who have no desire to actually PAY for those goods. Nope. “Put it on the card.” Mortgaging ones own future for a new toy is stupid. An unwillingness to save, defer purchasing a luxury item until one can actually, well, PAY for it is evidence of a measure of childish greediness that is driving this nation of debtors to become slaves to mere stuff.

And politicians who know their constituencies well know how to play to this greed: play class against class (in what was once envisioned as a near classless society–or at least one where “class” was fluid, determined by personal, responsible behavior); rob Producer to pay Sloth; rob the Future to pay Now (Social Security=”Put it on the card” on a gargantuan level).

But perhaps the most insidious manifestation of greed is in those who covet what is yours to pay for their agendas often without directly benefitting themselves (except as such aggrandisement strokes and inflates their egos–yes, I intended that image). Of course, “often without directly benefitting themselves” doesn’t apply to such as Algore who, while lying through his teeth about Anthropogenic Global Warming, did so both for the ego strokes and to line his own pockets. But that’s pretty much political B.S. for you in a nutshell: double-sided greed for ego strokes and money.

These are just a few aspects of greed and how it detrimentally affects our society. You can list many, many more just off the top of your head, I’m sure.

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