A few years back, to earn a few more bucks for my family to help ends meet, I drove for Uber and Lyft. I had taken off a week before Christmas to drive 12 hours a day while getting my paid vacation time. This way, the Uber/Lyft earnings would pay for Christmas presents and my salary would continue to cover our normal expenses. On one particular ride, I picked up a couple of guys. They were actors.
I asked the actors, once I knew that was their occupation, what they were going to be starring in. It was about 5 am, and I was taking them to where they’d be working. They said they were starring a TV series/show about the 7 deadly sins. Interesting…I asked, “Which ones are you?” They told me. I don’t remember which ones they were, but I remember that neither was Lust. I asked if the person playing Lust was a “hottie.” Of course, he is…I was assured.
The seven deadly sins have not changed as long as humanity has been humanity. There are positive and negative effects to each of the sins, and the positive side is usually a moderate version of the sin. For instance, “Satisfied” (in terms of when one stops eating) would be the moderate version of “Gluttony.” I want to focus on greed, though.
The challenge that was given me in another sphere was to write on one of the seven deadly sins, first giving its positive attributes and then follow up with its negatives if I wanted...Here it comes:
The positive side to greed, as the challenge requires, is that it motivates action toward the attaining of something else… action. One of the main tenets of capitalism, not to get too political, is that each person works for their own benefit/gain. The harder one works, it is assumed, the greater their reward will be and that they’ll be allowed to keep whatever it is they earned. Socialism, however, does not reward hard work. Instead, it has a downward pressure on it because there is no incentive to do it other than to be allowed to live. It is through greed that great and wonderful inventions have come about, like air conditioning, television, and farming on a scale today that is required to sustain the population currently on the earth (a number thought to have not been sustainable based on practices of less than 100 years ago). Greed creates drive. Each one of us on the Blurt arrived here due to greed, whether in large or small amounts. That’s how we’re getting such great content (and crappy content, too).
The negative side to greed shows its ugly head (which is when it is a sin) when someone salivates for wealth to the point that all ethics are tossed aside. For instance, someone selling drugs to children shows a lack of care the innocent’s life, but an intention to create a lifelong dependence on future use, and thus nearly guaranteed gain for the pusher. The push from any company offering addicting stuff (TV, alcohol, gambling…basically anything that has a support group to get you off of it) has been with the purpose of stacking their dollars higher than the next fella. I know I promote my posts on Hive so that I will get my post seen before other people’s posts. It’s due to greed. (I don't know how to do it on Blurt, yet)...Granted, it is a calculated greedy effort, but it is greed, nonetheless.
It is often the cry of those who have nothing to scream that those who have everything are greedy! One look and turn of the phrase shows those screaming to be equally greedy, just let successful at obtaining their greed. The whole progressive taxing system, at least the one I’m familiar with in the United States (and likely everywhere else in the world) is based upon the concept of greed. People who don’t have as much want to take the wealth of those who have obtained (out of greed) and call it “fair.” In reality, there is nothing fair to charging someone who has the most wealth at a higher percentage as someone else who has less. It is simply a statement of desperate greed of the less wealthy crying for desperation for the chance to bring someone lower to their level of wealth so they can feel closer to equal. It is much akin to children who shout, “You’re being selfish!” when a toy they had been playing with for hours is taken away by another child who wanted to finally have a moment to play with it, too. Who’s the selfish one? Both of them.
We are all looking for our own come-uppence. I know I am. You won’t find me calling too many people greedy, though…that’s hypocritical…much like someone who says another person’s post has too many upvotes worth too much in a cryptocurrency…if the market is clamoring to get a product I created (even if it is just a post that strikes a positive chord to the masses), I should be compensated for having come up with something so brilliant.
“They took advantage of the poor!” This is a cry I’ve heard of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and many other billionaires. The reality is, they found something that a whole lot of people wanted, or didn’t know they wanted it until it was presented in a very shiny, fashionable way, and they sold it to them at a price that would keep people coming. Steve Jobs didn’t steal money from a single person pushing and shoving in on a Black Friday years ago for an iPhone. They willingly gave it, yet several gasp (not all) when they learn how valuable the company became and type “Ill-gotten gains!” into their iPhones on Twitter.
I digress. It was a group of Chinese farmers who dared to get together and form a collective wherein they privately and secretly agreed that they could keep a portion of what they produced on their farms, against the Communist regime in China. When China saw the production from their farms was all of a sudden outperforming all other farms in China, they investigated. They were shocked to find what the farmers had agreed to but found it wise to let them keep doing it and started to practice some versions of it throughout different parts of the country. (I don’t have a source-it’s what I remember from a class I took years ago). This greed created plenty. Greed can be good, too.
So as you’re deciding whether to upvote this post or not, don’t think about greed. Give it a 100%. It’ll prove you don’t have a greedy bone in your body hahaha
