Greed vs Selfishness

I sometimes  have difficulty accepting a dictionary's definition when they use two words to define each other that have different internalized meanings to me. Such is the case with the words selfishness and greed. To me selfishness is doing what is in the best interests of the self, on the level of basic needs this is food, shelter and love. We are all entitled to the best food shelter and love we can create for ourselves. I don't think anyone has difficulty with the concept that we are all dealt certains cards in the the game of life but it is up to us how we play them. I think the problem we all have is playing with a stacked deck. Greed is stacking the deck, wanting more than enough and that others have less.

Not all rich people are greedy and not all greedy people are rich. Take the the example of Ted Turner who donated a billion + $ to bail out UN programs that make the world better for all of us and then there is the example of the Florida Man Asks Police to Shut Down Kid’s “Illegal” Lemonade Stand.  

Greed is as destructive to our society as any other form of fanaticism and should fight it with the weapons at our disposal our dollars and our votes.

Greed - How much is enough?

For some like the Koch brothers there is never enough, and provide a perfect reason why the ‘Hostile Profit/Prophet exists; environmental, economic and ethical abuses all in one example. While the conscientious are trying to green the environment and save the planet the Koch bros demand a tax on the sun ow.ly/3khVxs    and these idiots in Oklahoma go along with this insanity. Most utilities not only welcome solar supplements from private parties to their grid, they offer subsidies, grants etc. This is because they have reached the capacity they were designed for in normal use, to provide increased capacity for increasing peak demand utilities have to choose between building more infrastructure or acquire less expensive and environmentally friendly energy from other sources. While most utilities take option #2, the Kochs have convinced Oklahomans that these alternate sources should be charged for using the grid to distribute their power, they want to tax the sun so the dirty petroleum they peddle will seem more attractive. My guess is that the Kochs appealed to the Okies fear that somehow going green would threaten their traditionally petroleum based economy. Texans while no greener than Okies by disposition welcome the opportunity to make money in addition to petroleum business not instead of, solar and wind farms everywhere.

The House Edge

When the FEDs came looking to prosecute those who knowingly profited from toxic transactions many escaped on the basis that they were doing their jobs, making money for their shareholders and boards of directors and did not have direct involvement with toxic transactions. Some have gone to jail, some have had to repay what they stole but all in all this hasn’t changed the attitude of greed and com-modify anything to make a buck, conscionable or not.
Check out this link nyti.ms/14RbU4I  to ‘Wall St. Exploits Ethanol Credits, Prices Spike’.
If this makes you cringe and want to run in the other direction, there are lots of opportunities to invest in peer to peer and crowd sourcing ventures with good returns, conscionable and maybe even fun.

FYI #1

To those who have stopped by to check out ‘Hostile Profit’ thank you. The only direct links to here that I know of are from ‘Friends of the Second Marsh’ and ‘Barry U @Gazorble’ on Twitter. This post is intended to let readers know what has happened, what is happening now and what I hope to have happen in the future.
This blog and Twitter were this introvert's first attempts at social networking and sharing by putting out there and see what comes back. The first post ‘Mad as Hell’ says it all in a general way – fed up with economic, environmental and ethical abuses. The second post ‘Economics, Ethics and Ethanol’ was written as a direct response to the overwhelmingly bad idea of putting an ethanol plant next to a nature preserve. I think this idea died of embarrassment but nothing official so I’ll leave the ethanol posts where they are for future reference.
I am presently building a new web site for my pictures and all things related to visual and digital. I will have this blog hosted within that site with a greater focus on economics, ethics and how we can use our dollars and votes to combat greed and establish a new social contract that works for now. I hope you will return when more interactive and share your feedback. Thanks again for visiting.