I think that I have heard three score and seven commentators use the word "greed" today. And honestly, I'm pretty tired of it. They all seem to have an idea of what they mean, but none of them seem to have a clue what it actually means.
The "accepted definition" is something like: excessive desire, especially for wealth or possessions.
But that leads to a GIANT problem.
Who decides what is too much?
I'm not defending greed. I'm saying that it is a vacuous term. Instead of worrying about greed, maybe we should worry about ethics. Maybe we should worry about the long-term. Maybe we should demand the same from our executives. Maybe we should demand the same from our politicians.
Milton Friedman hit it head on. Ayn Rand hit it too.
There certainly is an issue on Wall Street. There is an issue on K Street too... And on BOTH ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Is it greed?
Or is it a serious lack of forethought? Today, they say that anyone should have seen this coming two years ago... and yet none of them did anything (there is an exception to that... but he McCain didn't get anywhere with that). Last week they were all willing to pass the bill as long as they weren't the end of the line.
Take a look at gas prices. The President announces that he is dropping the Executive Ban on offshore drilling, as well as drilling in some other places. This sends a signal to the trading community that at least part of the government is serious about lowering dependence on foreign oil. Oil prices have been trending down since... And yet, Congress refuses to act. They know that 70% of the public wants drilling... and so they won't vote on it. Or at least they won't vote on it until after at least the elections... or possibly even until the next President is sworn in... if it is THEIR guy.
Instead of thinking that their constituents might be hurting from high fuel prices, which could further slow the economy, and further increase unemployment... they worry about their personal power.
Is it greed that makes an executive on Wall Street drive a company into the ground while sucking out millions in compensation? It is pretty easy to argue that it is... but what about driving the company into the ground while sucking out thousands in compensation? Perhaps instead it is a serious lack of ethics. And a lack of honesty. Honesty with the world, and honesty with the self...
The fix?
Maybe we need to start punishing ethical breaches... not just the little ones, but the big giant ones, too. Maybe we need to reward honesty... and not just the little things, but the great big whopping ones too.
Unless otherwise noted, all content of this blog is the property of Lane Bailey, ©2012 Lane Bailey.
I'd love to hear from you...
Lane,
Of course it is greed. How difficult is it for someone with questionable ethics. Let's see, if I do (a), I get fifty million dollars and if I do (b), I earn a lesseer, short-term salary and some stock options that can only be exercised in ten years and only have value if the company does well in those future years. I think I'll take the fifty million and allocate ten million to legal fees.
Bill - You get a trip to the front of the class... Define Greed.
Sergio - Blame doesn't help. Look at all of the finger pointing out there right now. Is it fixing anything?
Simon - I hope you will think about using the word greed in the future.
Lane,
I like your fix sir....It is a shame tht those in power are afraid to act because of fear. Ferat that they may not be around next time they are up for election and the power will be all gone.
Lane you hit the nail on the head. These greedy bastards are getting billions of our taxpayers money and being rewarded for being greedy and dishonest. It's a white collar crime! The media says that Bush and the congress knew about these companies and that the bailout was going to be needed sooner or later. The way I see it middle america gets screwed again- their homes being foreclosed and losing their jobs while the fat cats of wall street go on with being rich!
Lane think about your choosen candidate McCain who says that our" economy is sound"? and only wanted to start a 911 commission to do nothing about these bailouts?
Lane, I get the feeling that most of your commenters failed to watch the Donahue interview. And you are right, Milton Friedman did get it right.
We need to realize that most of these "bad actors" that you refer to are Democrats. Talk about an ethical deficit! Franklin Delano Raines is nothing short of a criminal. History will decide the guilt or innocence of Jamie Gorelick, but I already have my opinion established.
It should be plain to all that everyone operates on the principle of self-interest, but that is no excuse for unethical behavior.
I'm glad you pointed out this distinction.
Bill Roberts
Hi Lane,
Great post. Greed is an ugly matter...
I see that your post is generating a lot of heated comments!!
Don't forget me if you learn of anyone moving to "The OC!"
Michael
(949) 753-7900
I agree with what you are saying here but I dont understand the drilling part. Why drill more? We dont benefit from more drilling in any way shape of form. Sure the oil companies will. They stand to profit billions. Will it bring down gas? Not a chance. Why would it? Seriously tell me why it would I dont believe it for a second.
This same illogical argument was used during the Iraq war. Is gas cheaper now? Is it? Who benefited? I know it was said we all would when that oil gets divied up and starts a pumpin' Yet today we are worse off than ever.
Its all a bunch of lies perpetuated by those in power and those who stand to gain by telling them.
Lane~ There should not be a bail out! We are only teaching those that are getting bailed out that they don't have to suffer consequences of their actions! What good is that really going to be?
Phil Donahue, what a blast from the past. I loved the clip, thank you for digging that up. God bless America, these are strange times for sure and we need all the help we can get. I think one distinction to make is that Capitalism does not equal Greed. Yes there are greedy Capitalists and unethical and dishonest Capitalists, but that does not make Capitalism the villian. Clean house, hold those accountable who are, and let the chips fall where they may.
Lane - instead of trying to find a definition for greed we need to plug the hole in the damn. Instead of looking for who to blame we need to fix the problem. Then we can look at who caused it. Then we can determine what greed is and who was greedy.
In the meantime, those who we pay and supposedly put our confidence in have betrayed our trust, both in the private and the public sector, whether for power, wealth or both. And they continue to do so demanding that the rest of us pay for their clouded, short-sighted and myopic approach to running a country and running an economy.
Here's an article off the web about this whole mess at http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/akp5ytcrbhpe
and another at
http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20080921/48d5c6c0_3ca6_1552620080921489044411
Look at our education system and how we reward the educational professionals that are key to teaching our future... shouldn't we find a better way to reward them? Maybe we wouldn't have the ethical breaches or the difficulty with definitions if we did our youth a teachers the justice and recognition they deserve!
Don - Look at the various representatives that have propblems. Many of them (seems to me that the ones on the left) get away with it. They can hide $100k in bribes in the freezer right now... but let them have a DUI 22 years ago... NOoooo...
Stephen - Define Greed. Until then, know that many of the underpinnings of the economy aren't that bad. The problem we have isn't because of bad economic basics... it is because a bunch of liars on Wall Street don't trust each other... Inflation? Unemployment? Taxes? Economic Growth?
Leslie - Not even close to a definition. I could know what to do with $1T... so, now it isn't greed?
Bill - You are right. Of course, most people don't know what Atlas Shrugged is, much less read it.
Tim - We do need a change... And the change needs to be someone that is willing to kick butt in their own party as well as the bad apples on the other side, too... Only one candidate has shown any spine on that.
Renee - Your post came through loud and clear without paragraphs. And I am right there with you. I hate voting "lesser of two evils"... And I was hoping I wouldn't be this time. Silly me.
As for drilling... it is obviously NOT a long term solution, but it can get us over the hump, and if we could bring on the nukes, wind, solar, bio... then we could burn the oil in our cars... and still lower the imports.
Michael - Greed is vaporous...
Carole - There is a need for some regulation... but there is a bigger need for honesty. And responsibility.
Carole, some more - Tell that bit about calling your reps to Nancy Pelosi. 70% of the population wants drilling, and she (in her role as Speaker of the House) won't allow a vote because SHE has her own agenda.
Shane - The only people that said oil would go down after the Iraq war were Democrats against it. Drilling WILL bring down oil prices. The threat will bring down oil prices... it already has. The President rescinded the Executive order and prices have been falling since.
But more importantly, while you are talking about how much money the oil companies are making, you should look at what they are giving to the producers of the oil If you start to really think about it, if the oil companies were getting THOSE profits... we could balance the budget with the taxes.
Vickie - I hate to say "Baby and Bathwater..."
Janna - you deserve the cookie.
Louis - I'm saying there is no greed... it is just a word to use as a weapon. Stupidity is rampant.
Mike - Kind of funny but when McCain said that, Obama attacked him for wanting to figure out what happened so as to prevent it in the future.
Jean - At what point does it become greed? Why not just the suspicious activities you referred to?
Ed & Cindy - Ethics and honesty are at the core.
Stephen - Am I supposed to guess at the particular point to these articles? Like Obama not wanting to forward his own plan, but rather wait until the administration put something out so he could criticize it regardless of what was in it?
Lane - I used to work for the largest microcomputer manufacturing company in the world. When there were obvious problems the first thing we did was discover what went wrong, put together a plan to fix it and do it. If things didn't go right we tweaked the plan until they did. Unless there was blatant incompetence or active resistance, blame didn't happen until we did a post mortem, a lessons learned if you will. Unfortunately, those in charge would rather blame than learn.
We had a friend suggest that they hang a few at noon in the town square. Might discourage others?
If they can send Martha Stewart to jail for insider trading, and that wasn't nearly on the scales of this, then when will the heads roll!?!
The programs available were there to assist people. I have an ARM that is interest only, and it's great! When used correctly, these types of financial programs are helpful.
What was NOT good is that everyone tried to use their personal property as personal piggy banks. Borrowing against the equity, is fine, but people forgot that they had to pay the loan! No one seemed to want to do that.
But this has been happening for a while. Five years ago my neighbor had THREE mortgages. When it was "everyone else is doing it" -- loans got out of hand.
This is like a wildfire. Sure, we know what conditions will ignite the forest . . . extremely dry weather for a long duration (draught conditions), source of fuel (underbrush that has not be cleared), and it only takes a cigarette butt tossed carelessly out the window.
How and when the conditions would occur was anyone's guess. We thought that we had gone through this all from the July/August '07 "meltdown." Now it's the pension funds.
The thing is, most people pay their bills. Most people aren't in foreclosure. Most people DO save!
Greed is one component. Integrity, professionalism, ethics are all lacking in today's financial sector and government.
Lane it seems your POed at the least. But I will only say this. Enron execs did the exact this not mattr how anyone looks at it ( cooking the books) they went to jail. These people are getting severence pay. No matter what party you're affilated with this is like kids on the play ground and it has to be stopped. The Revoltion is coming or the end but it will be soon and that is all I have to say.
We brought this on ourselves with the attitude of don't drill here or there. We should have said fine you can drill here or there but if you pollute the area you will pay the cost of clean up plus an equal amount as penalty. Furthermore when you are finished the land will be returned to it's prior state. Simple solution.
Lane ~ I'm for Drill Now, not what Nancy Pelosi is dreaming up. If the American people would realize what she is putting forth to hurt our nation in the smoke screen of democratic spin, this is a tragedy and must be exposed.
Lane - Honesty? What an amazing concept. This was well articulated. I'm so tired of partisianship and self-serving practices from our beloved folks in and behind the political limelight. I'd say that Instant Karma is going to get them, but we can't rely on that alone. I will check out the video when I get home.
I couldn't agree with you more on this post! I am sick and tired of seeing these people who have done so much wrong get rewarded so big! It needs to stop, it really does. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, but where do you really start since all of the power players are involved?
Lane and everyone else. The point of my posting articles was to let everyone read about what is going on and not just to rant and rave like 80% of the comments on this post. Did anyone bother to read the articles?
To Richard Lecinski I dont know where you're from but thanks for reposting my comments. You say that John McCain was talking about American workers when he said that "our economy is strong" a week ago before these Bailouts? but that he knew about this situation with our financial managers/ mortgagors on Wall Street and didnt do anything? Are you serious? American workers have been losing jobs and being outsourced for years under the Bush administration! Where have you been?
Stephen - no they didn't. Lane - Thanks for the post, it's very important for people to understand that companies take risks every day, and the corporate executives get paid a lot of money because they are supposed to be able to minimize the risk based on experience. Most would think that Jack Welsh or Stephen Jobs is well worth what they were being compensated, as is Warren Buffett. The biggest difference is when they fail at managing risk. . The companies that can retain leaders for a long period of time seem to do much better than the ones who are hiring a new ceo every year.
::STANDING AND APPLAUDING:: The last two sentences of your post are priceless. It is soooooooooooooooo simple, Lane. Why is it still broken? GREAT STUFF! GBU!
Renee - I think that one of the kool-aids is more deadly than the other... but neither one is good for us.
Mike - McCain's fist comments were that we needed to fix the problem and figure out how to prevent it in the future. Obama's were to blame McCain and Bush... and I am going to write a post later today that will shed a little more light on that...
Terry - I understand the thought... but who is the right one to start with?
Richard - At some point someone is going to figure out that the real crisis here is confidence, not credit.
Carla - I would disagree about the use of the word greed... it isn't a word with a meaning, it is just a weapon.
Diane - What about personal greed? What about greed among the "community activists" that engineered a large part of this mess... And why say greed? Do you have a good working definition yet?
Charles - I keep thinking of Atlas Shrugged...
John - That is an issue, but the way that this was brought on was by "the less fortunate" bullying corporations through the government... and yes, there is a post coming.
Nicholas - Don't get me started on Nancy Pelosi. If she were a Republican, there would be hearings.
Jason - I hope you enjoy the clip.
Michael - You are reading into what you want to see... Who did I say was rewarded? Who profited?
Stephen - What about the economy is weak? Unemployment? Interest rates? Inflation? Level of home ownership? Stock Market? GDP? Productivity? Tax revenue?
We are not having an economic crisis. We are having a confidence crisis. Banks won't loan money to each other because they don't believe the numbers coming from the other banks. And the helpful way to deal with a crisis in confidence isn't to tell people that everything sucks and that this compares with the Great Depression. The ONLY way this compares is in regards to bank failures... and that is due to low confidence between the institutions and from consumers thinking that things are terrible.
Sorry, but the unemployment rate is 1/6 of that of the Depression. Heck, we aren't even in a recession according to the accepted definition... we just have a bunch of politicians that are afraid of saying things that are true for fear of offending someone.
Larry - The problem that I see isn't one of CEO total compensation, but rather CEOs getting paid to not perform... I could have a plan for that as well...
Elizabeth - Simple doesn't mean easy. The current PC climate doesn't let us smack someone on the side of their head for being an idiot... And thank you for the nice comment.
Sylvia - You may notice that your comment went away... That would be because it is spam. Why are you advertising your services on MY blog? Why not try it on your own? Of course, instead of advertising how groovy you are, you might go farther by delivering usefull content...
In the mean time... Bye.
Lane,
Nice post. Who knows, maybe if WE all stick together and work TOGETHER, we can make things change. Remember the tea party?
John - There are a lot of people that don't care about freedom or liberty... they just want to know what is in it for them. They are usually the first ones to point the "greed finger" at others.