This Greed Of Ours!
Greed…
I’ve been on this earth for 23 years, and I’m sure of only one thing, most human beings are really greedy!
Most of you don’t know this but I’m not a Catholic man, I was raised in a Catholic school, I was baptized and did the first communion, but I’ve since distanced myself from church… I will talk about this in another post, this post is about greed!
Even though I’ve distanced myself from the Catholic church I still remember a large portion of the stuff I was taught, one of those things is that greed is a deadly sin! But what is greed?
Wikipedia says:
Greed, or avarice, is an inordinate or insatiable longing for unneeded excess, especially for excess wealth, status, power, or food.
Ok… so it’s a longing for an excess of wealth, status, power or food, but who makes “the rules” about how much is excess? Maybe we have different opinions on what excess is… maybe you are happy with 1000bucks a month, but what if I’m not! Maybe I’ll only be happy with 10.000 bucks a month, is it that bad to want more money? More power? What if I’m working for that money and power? Don’t I deserve it? Who says what excess is? Should I limit my potential just because someone says that Greed is a sin? That greed is wrong?! What if I’m greedy but I’m spending some of that money to make the world a better place?
Imagine this situation:
I work a 9-5 job all year long, I make my money, but I’m greedy so I want more, I start researching about investing and I start investing, I get extra passive income sources, the money keeps rolling in, but I still want more! So, I start buying houses with the money that is coming in and start renting them, but I still want more money! I start a blog and get some revenue from the blog, but I still want more! After years and years of working myself almost to death, of being greedy I retire and have more money than I can spare! Now, am I in the wrong here? I’m a greedy person in this example since I wanted more than I needed, but what did I do so wrong? I put all my time and effort into generating more power, more cash, more status, shouldn’t I be rewarded for it?
Since I was little I always listened to the same thing from my parents… “you need to be greedier!” and in my opinion I think greed is a great thing to have, it makes us want more, it makes us be better! Why should we stick to being average? If the Roman empire wasn’t greedy we wouldn’t have aqueducts, sewers, roads, philosophy, politics, etc…
Here is the thing, I’m not one of those persons that has a small dream, my dreams are big! Some of them are probably too big that I won’t be able to do them in my lifetime! Having some greed makes me closer to my dreams! I need that greed! It gives me motivation! … the problem arises when we are too greedy!
Trampling over other people! That’s where I set the line. Being so greedy that I don’t care if I trample over someone to achieve my dreams! That’s when greed starts to become a bad thing… It’s like anything in life! Too much of anything is bad! Again, with the Roman empire example, if they weren’t so greedy their whole empire wouldn’t have succumbed to its own pressure. That’s why I don’t understand this concept of greed being a deadly sin, excess greed yes, but greed, in general, isn’t!
Just found out while writing this that there might be a genetic basis for greed, a gene in the 12th chromosome called AVPR1a may make people more selfish!! Thinking about this from a scientific point of view greed would be an evolution mechanism, being greedy with the food we consume and with our mates would increase the probability of leaving progeny! This is still true even in our modern society!
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Question of the day: What is your opinion about being greedy? Are you a greedy person?
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I think you have got the balance. I don't think there is any need to trample on people to get where you want. Everyone is human and these days, especially with the internet, there are ways and means of achieving goals (especially financial ones) without trampling your way to the top.
You are absolutely right about the internet part!! Especially in this crypto world, we now see flourishing!!
I would not call it Greed. The thing you should have plenty of is Ambition.
Ambition is wanting to have something better than you already do. A bigger pay, a better social status, power to influence things in your life. It could be driven on money, power, fitness or anything else.
To me the word Greed is used when you take more than your portion to the detriment of others. The example is that of a couple of kids sharing sweets. When one takes more than the other by force or subterfuge then it was a greedy decision to have more than the other.
And there lies the fine line.
Unsuccessful people like to point the finger at successful people and call them greedy!
Instead of working on themselves they need to find fault in others, even if those others are better than them. Meanwhile they may have no idea whatsoever how hard those people worked to get into the positions that they are now!
You are absolutely right about this! Isn't ambition just a lesser form of greed??
What if that ambition doesn't fade away? What if we always want more and more? are in the wrong over here? Isn't that being greedy?
Ok, i searched around and found this nice article about ambition vs greed
https://online.arbor.edu/blog/greed-vs-ambition-how-to-know-the-difference/
It seems that the distinction between being greedy and being ambitious is just that a ambitious person tries to succed not only for himself but to the good of others, while a greedy person is someone that harms someone else to further his own goals...
I know a lot of successful people who uplift others as they grow. I think that is the correct attitude.
How can you stand tall without supporters? How much taller can you stand if you have supporters that are more powerful? I know it is starting to sound like a pyramid... but people put negative emphasis on the idea of a pyramid and yet it is only natural. There are pyramids everywhere in nature, especially when we collect data. Natural balance would dictate that there be a supporting structure in an ecosystem to support a need and if there is no support then extinction looms round the corner.
Interesting post Teuto. In your post you're describing two forms of greed. 'positive' greed and 'bad' greed. I wouldn't put it like that, rather desire/ambition and greed. At it's core those two driving forces are the same but different at the same time. Greed is a state of being where you can never be satisfied, always looking for more. In my opinion greed is always 'bad'.
Ambition/desire on the other hand also drives you to improve but it's easier to balance out with moderation.
What if my ambition never stops?? Is there such a thing as "too much money"? too much power? too much status? what if i don't have that "stop", what if my ambition evolves and keeps increasing?
The line between a person being ambition and a person being greedy is very blurry! What some people call being greedy i call being ambitious!
If you can't set a clear line for yourself your ambition turned into greed. The line won't be the same for everyone but if you don't have one you will never be 100% satisfied thus never truly happy.
Greed is a nuisance in the society but at times it can become the fuel for success for individuals like, it certainly is a confusing characteristic to possess.
I guess people call that greed ambition, the problem i see is that the distinction between greed and ambition is not very clear IMO... it's hard to pinpoint exactly when ambition becomes greed, some people actually lose themselves this way...
Some are just too greedy they forgot that others really matters. The crypto world is a good example. Either Positive or Bad greed, they are all greed.. Some will drop a comment a post, they won't upvote the post but they will upvote their own comment.
Exactly! In the end that will only be bad for them! People won't like them in the long run and steemit is not only a blogging platform but also a social network platform, doing that will only decrease the opinion people have of them.
I guess it can also be called natural selection ( or crypto selection) people that are too greedy will end up with nothing in the end, for example, people that were greedy and invested into bitconnect, they ended up with nothing, people that upvote their own comments same thing... In the end the strong survive and the weak perish, or so i hope
@teutonium In my experience, a Greedy person often takes stupid decisions in life, they're easy to manipulate, (just tell them to invest a penny today for a million pennies tomorrow, and they will be QUITE interested). Greed often defies logic.
Why do you think millions of people fall for ponzi schemes? Are scammers really that smart? Or is it that people are so ignorant due to greed overpowering them, that they give in, and act like dumb people.
Why do marketers, and I am talking about the BS marketers, who don't give a damn about you. They just master the way to seduce you into handing them your money (Copywriting when used as a dark art)
I feel the teachings have been misinterpreted, or manipulated by religions in past for personal gain. (Tell people don't be greedy, and then ask them to give in charity generously).
The desire for growth in life is natural, growth is a part of the DNA of life.
So whether you want to grow financially, or otherwise, is no problem whatsoever. In fact, everyone should strive to reach to their maximum human potential.
But as far as greed is concerned, you don't need to be greedy to live an abundant life, you just need common sense, and love, enough love for your aspirations to sustain the struggles of life, and make it.
Greedy people, no matter how much they acquire they want more, and you will not find a generous greedy person.
Either you are generous, or you're greedy, you can't be both.
When a greedy person gives, he is still giving to get in one way or another.
Cheers!
Regarding the Ponzi schemes part, i agree 100%, but i guess it's just natural selection, the ones that are dumb enough to actually invest in stuff they don't know end up losing... For example, i don't intend to be greedy, i only invest in coins that are already established, yes, it will be less profit in the end, but at least i don't have the risk of it being a scam... For example, i don't feel any anger towards the guys behind bitconnect, they were greedy but they were also smart, i'm more angry at the ppl that actually invested in it, everyone said it was a scam and people still invested in it...
I don't know if it is because of the way i was raised but i'm a greedy guy, i don't want to live an abundant life, i always want more! The generous part it really depends, i'm generous for some stuff and not so generous about other stuff. I'm generous to my close friends, but not so generous to strangers...
It's an interesting and thought-provoking subject. I actually think the examples you mention are not so much about greed as about insecurity. Many people feel the need to possess things that they could easily share, or rent - for example, a pair of fancy shoes that they will only wear once. It's because they feel insecure.
I will never understand those ppl that buy shoes only to wear them once... i think i wear mine until they start to deteriorate, i like my money (guess i'm a little greedy with my money)... thanks for reading!
I can definitely see where you are coming from, but I do not think wanting to create access to clean water (aquaducts) and connecting people (roads) are necessarily greedy. Sure, there was some influence from greed, but the underlying motivation is to help your people. Greed to me is wanting these better things and greater abundances for the sole purpose of your own personal gain. So, I think that there are many factors that can motivate an individual to procure greater prosperity, and greed is just one of them.
Great post. :)
Well... i guess it really depends on what they were thinking back then... if they built those to make the population happy then yes, it wasn't greedy, but if they wanted to make those so the population would be happy and less likely to revolt than yes, it wasn't greedy.
From reading some of the comments i learned something which i haven't thought about, i guess the examples i'm giving weren't fueled by greed but by ambition... the problem is, where does ambition ends and greed starts? is there a line? Where is this line? Maybe this line is different for some people...
Yes, motivation comes from many different sources, i think that by using them all one becomes better, i haven't gone through all the 7 deadly sins but i think some of them are actually great motivators, wrath for example, pride, maybe lust...
Amazing topic to discuss. See the problem with greed is that we really personally don't know where the line is as humans. This is the danger of it.
Greed is a sign of insecurity. Basically you are not ok with having what you need so you obtain more to make yourself feel more secure in either who you are or what you have. But you never feel secure since greed will drive you to want more and more.
Greed makes people do all kinds of things that to be honest mostly end up harming society rather than helping.
I think you can be highly motivated without being greedy. But it can be a fine line to walk depending on the person.
Good convo bro.
Yeah, just realized this tbh, but is it so bad to be insecure and actually be motivated by the greed that comes out of that insecurity? What i realized from talking with people is that there are actually two different things, one is greed and another is ambition, the problem is that "where does one begin and the other ends?"...
Like pharmacy companies that dump waste into rivers, or pump our cows with antibiotics...
I actually came up with this post because i was viewing some stuff about the 7 deadly sins!! I was thinking that some of the deadly sins can actually be good motivators if in small doses (pride and envy for example...) But i guess they are called other things when they are in small doses and aren't deleterious to other people, for example, greed and ambition, maybe pride and dignity?Envy And Covetousness maybe?
What all this research made me realize is that i need to read Dante's Inferno, it seems like a really cool book!
Thanks for reading @humanearl!