Greed is BAD!!!!!
I remember watching the movie "Wall Street" in the past. It is a very good movie, if you haven't seen it. The movie was released in 1987, during the Reagan years, when it seemed that everybody was focused on making more money. In the movie, a millinaire and the main antagonist of the story Gordon Gekko talks to a group of shareholders in a paper company how Greed is good.
Here's a snippet:
"The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms - greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind. "
Maybe one could make a case for what he says here. However, what I have observed and learned in recent time, this couldn't be further from the truth. I have seen "An Inconvenient Truth" recently. It is interesting when one Mr. Al Gore talks about how China and India among other industrialized have advanced beyond America in terms of where they get their energy from and how they use it. Many of these industrialized nations are getting a decent percentage of their energy from things other than petroleum. In America, it is a cop out, because it is too expensive. According to the oil and energy executives. Of course, these groups have a stake in things staying the same. In their minds, it is more lucrative in the short term for them to continue to use Oil to heat people's homes and fuel their cars. Thanks to this, America runs the risk of becoming a second rate power. Furthermore, we have a country that is polluting more of its air and wrecking its environment. Also, creating more disease for people. At least in the long run. It bugs me that summers these days seem hotter than they did 15 years ago. In which case we use more energy than before. Using more oil, until we have very little left. What then? War? For oil? Why? Why do we need this?
Another interesting thing I have been reading that has added fuel to my fire against greed has been a post from Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/19/21267/6531
Let's take a look at Outsourcing for a moment. Many Middle Class Americans have been losing their jobs due to this. It is sick the way the middle class is getting squeezed by this. All because companies what to offshore jobs to India and China just to protect their bottom lines. Isn't this a little short sighted? Instead of being able to help America and their company claim leadership and most likely make more money in the long term, they concentrate on the short term. So, instead of using our skills as Americans, we teach people from India and China to do it. Then they just improve upon what we do. They can start up their own companies, based on this information, to directly compete with ours. They could get around the patent rights of CEO's who were not really thinking of their company's interest to begin with and outmanuver us. Leaving us with very high unemployment and no original ideas because our competitors have already improved upon those ideas. I doubt America or even these CEO's will benefit from this. Nobody in America will. So, how is Greed good?
It is important for America to not have Greed, but have desire. Now, Greed is a form of desire, but desire is a more broad term. Where Mr. Gekko in the quote above describes Greed, I see it as a desire. A desire to impove ourselves and the world. While Greed is the desire for financial improvement, the more broad form of desire has to do with general improvement. This is what America, in all its complacency these days lacks. It is what America needs. It is what will get this country and all our people out of the moral, fiscal and economical crisis that we find ourselves in today. Desire is the key to the future. True desire for change. Not the lust for money. Desire Works.
Here's a snippet:
"The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms - greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind. "
Maybe one could make a case for what he says here. However, what I have observed and learned in recent time, this couldn't be further from the truth. I have seen "An Inconvenient Truth" recently. It is interesting when one Mr. Al Gore talks about how China and India among other industrialized have advanced beyond America in terms of where they get their energy from and how they use it. Many of these industrialized nations are getting a decent percentage of their energy from things other than petroleum. In America, it is a cop out, because it is too expensive. According to the oil and energy executives. Of course, these groups have a stake in things staying the same. In their minds, it is more lucrative in the short term for them to continue to use Oil to heat people's homes and fuel their cars. Thanks to this, America runs the risk of becoming a second rate power. Furthermore, we have a country that is polluting more of its air and wrecking its environment. Also, creating more disease for people. At least in the long run. It bugs me that summers these days seem hotter than they did 15 years ago. In which case we use more energy than before. Using more oil, until we have very little left. What then? War? For oil? Why? Why do we need this?
Another interesting thing I have been reading that has added fuel to my fire against greed has been a post from Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/19/21267/6531
Let's take a look at Outsourcing for a moment. Many Middle Class Americans have been losing their jobs due to this. It is sick the way the middle class is getting squeezed by this. All because companies what to offshore jobs to India and China just to protect their bottom lines. Isn't this a little short sighted? Instead of being able to help America and their company claim leadership and most likely make more money in the long term, they concentrate on the short term. So, instead of using our skills as Americans, we teach people from India and China to do it. Then they just improve upon what we do. They can start up their own companies, based on this information, to directly compete with ours. They could get around the patent rights of CEO's who were not really thinking of their company's interest to begin with and outmanuver us. Leaving us with very high unemployment and no original ideas because our competitors have already improved upon those ideas. I doubt America or even these CEO's will benefit from this. Nobody in America will. So, how is Greed good?
It is important for America to not have Greed, but have desire. Now, Greed is a form of desire, but desire is a more broad term. Where Mr. Gekko in the quote above describes Greed, I see it as a desire. A desire to impove ourselves and the world. While Greed is the desire for financial improvement, the more broad form of desire has to do with general improvement. This is what America, in all its complacency these days lacks. It is what America needs. It is what will get this country and all our people out of the moral, fiscal and economical crisis that we find ourselves in today. Desire is the key to the future. True desire for change. Not the lust for money. Desire Works.
posted by CO Democrat at 5:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home