Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
Greed isn't something just corporations have. It's something we all have. There's no getting away from it. Capitalism tries to make it useful to all of us. While there are lots of examples of that idea failing overall it does work pretty well. Better than any other system we've devised so far.
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Capitalism does not require greed. Nor are we all greedy. Simply
not true. Greed is
not good (it's ridiculous that this has to be said).
Capitalism simply means
"an economic system based on private ownership of capital." There's nothing there that requires greed. Nor does it require cheating your help or using predatory practices to destroy your competition. Or that you become a monopoly. Nor does it require buying a company to break it up for pieces and turning out thousands of workers. That's greed, not capitalism.
Greed means,
"excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves." I've
never wanted or plotted to get something that rightfully belonged to someone else. I've just tried to make my own way, without harming someone else. Someone who is greedy doesn't care if they harm someone else (or some other company) so long as they get what
they want.
Ideally capitalism means free enterprise. Where everyone has a chance to succeed and where unfair practices are banned – where the rich are not allowed to undercut the poor (or the powerful can't undercut the weak). In the Middle ages they had the guilds, where (at least ideally) rules were followed that insured those who worked hard weren't run out of business.
That's the kind of capitalism I would like to see. Not the "suck the marrow out of 'em"
venture capitalism that truly
is pure greed.