The Age of the Greedmeister

January 17, 2008; day 455, I think.  Overuse of alcohol kills.  Overuse of greed destroys the whole planet.  I wonder…is there a “Greedy People’s Anonymous”?  When people destroy whole legions of people just to get a bigger yacht or whatever, do they really feel good or do they just get a momentary high and then, the next morning, they are more dissatisfied with their life than ever?  Like alcoholism, “Greedism” seems as though it may be a perversion of a natural system.  It is quite natural not to want to die and if you live off the land in a glacier period, you had better store up lots of food for the winter.  Up to a point, the more acorns, bearmeat or whatever that you store, the more likely you are to survive.  But then…today’s Greedmeisters are like way beyond that.  They have brought so much bounty into their cave that the floor is collapsing and they and their progeny are about to die much sooner than if they had been more modest.  Alcohol is kind of self-limiting in the sense that if you drink too much, you will pass out.  As I understand it, passing out is about one drink short of killing yourself.  And, people who have drunk too much too quickly have actually accomplished this dubious feat.  But, generally speaking, people pass out or upchuck (just) before they manage to take a lethal dose.  However, when it comes to greed for material possessions, the limit will come after it is too late to do anything about it.  For any of us.

 

There are many mysteries here.  Why do we tolerate anyone being that greedy?  Why doesn’t the greedy person themselves see that they are destroying everything?  Why do we tolerate a system that puts Greedmeisters on a pedestal and publish their puff-piece autobiographies and then treat them as fact.  Case in point.  A financial company loses BILLIONS of dollars and, even if the CEO is fired, said Greedmeister receive many millions in payments.  Huh?  Yes, let’s go over that again.  Because, let’s say that YOU gave me $1000 of your money to invest and then I went and did such a bad job of investing it that I lost the whole $1000 and you owed another $1000 besides.  Would you then “give me” a bonus of $500 for the trouble of trying?  I kinda don’t think so.  Even if I blamed everything on things beyond my control.  But meanwhile, of course, if your investments HAD paid off, it would be because of my courage, intelligence, hard work, creativity, etc. etc.  NEVER due to “good luck.”  The positive gains are always due to the Greedmeister, but the losses are always due to “bad luck”, government interference, pesky lawsuits, etc. Interesting, eh?