Greed is a Sin

[Joanne98]

Not too long ago, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled "Greed is Good." It is quite a sensational and frightening title seeing as how greed is among the deadliest of sins. The piece was written by Roy C. Smith, a professor of finance at New York University's Stern School of Business, and former partner of Goldman Sachs.

Smith implied that government regulation of Wall Street will only "hamper the economic comeback." He argued that in order for Wall Street and its many employees to perform at their best they must receive their generally massive annual bonuses, along with various incentives and perks.

In the article, Smith said, "Bonuses are an important and necessary part of the fast-moving, high-pressure industry, and its employees flourish with strong performance incentives."

This fact may be true. Humans tend to perform at their best when they stand to gain from their performance. It is the reason most of us are attending college. We study and go to class in hopes of a more profitable and fulfilling future. Some would argue that this strikes at the very core of greed - that greed is simply part of the human condition. This is false. Greed is not part of the human condition, it is a learned behavior.

Corporate America and Wall Street have tricked us into believing that success depends on the size of our bank accounts, and have shown us that greed leads to success. We have been convinced that the words greed and business are synonymous. Thus, greed is a fine quality as long as it can be twisted to resemble good business. This horrifying notion is what Smith is defending, and is one of the main causes of our economic troubles today.

Greed has been the impetus for a continuous and savage war waged on the middle class. As of late greed has lead our economy to the brink of destruction, caused unemployment rates to rise to levels unseen since the Great Depression and all but erased many hard working American's retirement funds. Employed Americans consider themselves fortunate to go to work everyday. They will receive no bonus this year and have never received one in previous years. That may be the case, but they are still grateful to have some form of income while many in this country have found themselves with none.

Continued>>>
http://media.www.arbiteronline.com/media/storage/paper890/news/2009/02/23/Opinion/Greed.Is.A.Sin-3642163.shtml

[ZombieHorde]

1. Fun picture. nt

[elleng]

2. And so are

lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy and pride, FWIW.

[Joanne98]

3. Wrath. I'm guilty

[tama]

4. Sin

translated from the Greek word 'hamartia', which means error, mistake. Mortal sins are errors that are abnormally lethal - beyond natural lethality, as all that becomes also ceases. We have saying that 'greedy has a shitty end'. Some of our lethal errors driven by greed: usury, imperialism, capitalism, burning woods and fossile fuels, some say the whole history of civilizations...

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Joanne.