I am still a firm believer in greed is good, but there is good and bad greed and it is always important to act in moderation.
I view good greed as a driver, that basic desire to strive and seek something better and the means to achieve it, this is what I try to practice in my life.
Bad greed is an excess, where one prays on the weaknesses of others, or allows themselves to be blinded to reality and leads only to failure. I believe your article made some excellent points about this kind of greed.

There is a Chinese proverb that roughly translates as “Greed will lead to Poverty.” The world has just proven to me that this proverb is true.

Keep up the good work.

“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your f@#king khakis.”
Tyler Durden
Fight Club

I think our society puts too much emphasis on defining ourselves by greed and the things we buy. We almost worship the ideas of accumulating wealth and the materialist things we seek. Those who have mass amounts of wealth, who are greedy, and have the latest toys are those we come to believe as the most knowledgeable… we worship them too. Are people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet people that we should seek to be? Do they have more to say then the average citizen who struggles to get buy? Does one have more integrity than the other?

Along the same lines with what you wrote here, I am reminded of something I read by the Dahlia Lama when speaking on how materialism binds us to this life and will never set us free. He said that when people seek to buy things they never consider the long term problems that go along with buying something. For example, people want the most fancy car, so they get a loan to buy it. Now they have a car payment. The tires and breaks need to be replaced. The oil needs to be changed. Then the car breaks down and they have to fix it. This causes stress in their life because they likely did not plan for the time or place that the car broke down. This has financial consequence, if the person did not plan. It impacts the family and the family has to sacrifice. Then many years later, the car is old faded, and broken. The person want a new car. Thus the cycle starts again.

I think the same can be said for greed. People want more and more, but never consider the impact of such desires. It used to be, we acquired wealth to support our family. Send the kids to school, buy a nice house (not the most fancy), and live in a neighborhood with good people. Now, it often appears to be a competition for more and more. So, we desire the biggest house, car, pool, boat, etc, and the kids can’t go to school. We have a mortgage payment that is too much and equity in the house that is nil. The neighborhood does not contain nice people b/c everyone is competing for the best this or the best that. Even bigger, the consequences of greed effects our society as a whole. We are the best nation because we have the most. However, that impacts our relationship with other nations. It effects the perceptions people from other nations have about us individually. And etc.

I guess I am starting to ramble. But more people need to stop and consider what you have said.

The reality is, if you are giving in your poverty, the chances are very high that you won’t need to worry about what you will do in your wealth, for that day will never come. Everyone should go read Your Money Or Your Life for the idea of the crossover point, the point at which your income from investments reaches the same level as your monthly expenses. That’s the point of money meaning independence. After that point, you can begin practicing generosity, and should. Poor people have the deck stacked against them– ordinary living expenses being so high a proportion of their income, for example– quite enough, without adding to the burden by adding deliberate social pressure to be generous to the passive social pressure we all feel already.

Fear of poverty and homelessness drives us all to some degree, but I imagine that intense fear of poverty and homelessness can drive some of us to acquire far, far beyond what we really need materially in the here and now. The author’s example of the tsunami victims and their generousity shows what is possible when people have nothing left to lose.

I wonder how the greed therapists out there (do they exist?) treat the root insecurities that can drive greedy behavior.