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By Lawrence Swaim, IFN Columnist
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Tuesday, 12 January 2010 |
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Page 2 of 2
But greed, like all forms of radical selfishness, is pathological and sinful. It devastates nations, destroys trust, and leaves ruined lives and compromised institutions in its wake. Most of all, it destroys the ability of people to enter into social contracts, because it makes capital more important than the rule of law. It is the opposite of healthy commerce — it is the calculated misuse of the marketplace to increase the wealth of a few in the short term, while putting the long-term welfare of the country at risk.
There was a time when Americans with great fortunes were expected to gentrify their money with charitable foundations and good works. Today’s Wall Street executives were more likely — until public scrutiny made them stop — to throw a million-dollar party in Southampton than set up a charity. There has arisen among some wealthy people a culture of greed that is close to madness. Their frantic pursuit of money has most of the characteristics of an addiction, and like all addicts, they end up hurting everybody around them. Such people are often so obsessed with the false idols of the marketplace that they are not even emotionally available to their own spouses and children.
Regulation of speculative economic activity is clearly necessary in a time of shifting credit markets and a global economy. But we must do more. We must find our way to a more productive economy, creating real jobs, products and services. Since saving our planet is Job One of the future, a Green Economy, based not on petroleum but on renewable energy, could be the way out of the moral inflation of endless speculation.
We must also challenge greed in our own hearts. Knowing exactly where to draw the line between robust competition and greed is not easy. Like the Quakers, we must ask daily, “Do our vocations provide constructive and beneficial services? Do we observe integrity in our business transactions?” Money used wisely can be the basis for a good life and a healthy society, but without sound goals, and the application of basic moral values to economic affairs, we can easily face economic and spiritual bankruptcy.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 29 April 2010 )
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