[Goranhammer]

Here's an honest question...

For each individual, how much does one have to possess before they become "greedy" in your eyes?

Do you only want enough money to live and eat very modestly?

Do you want enough to provide for you and your loved ones very modestly?

Do you want to live a comfortable life, and want your family/children to do the same?

Do you want to live/provide the absolute most you possibly can?

---

In essence, at what level of desire does it become "greed" to you? For me, I've never TOTALLY based my happiness on money, but I want as much of it as I can get. I enjoy material possessions, there's always something out there I can buy that will make me happier...perhaps a new toy, or a better version of something I already have. If I do have a family someday, I want to be able to provide the absolute best for them. I do not want to have to live in squaller, or in some suburban slum. When I die, I want to leave them as much money as possible so they can live a good life.

Am I wrong for attending college? Am I wrong for wanting a job that pays more than your average grunt-work? Am I wrong for using the money I work for and earn to enjoy at my leisure?

I'd say no, but many would say yes. I've always wondered about that...

Are most of the people who cite the evils of greed ones that have very little to nothing of their own? Jealousy is a strong emotion, and worse yet it's not even recognizable to most within themselves. They know they have to hate the bigger man...but aren't fully sure why. All they know is that the anger blocks out the rationality.

I wonder what triggers the thought of this powerful word in everyone else.

[Todd D.]

It becomes Greed when you are willing to do direct physical harm to someone else for your own material acquisition. No not in a "You support Capitalism so you support oppression" kind of way, in a "Those are nice sneakers, I'm bigger than you give em to me" kind of way.

Anything else is just being materialistic.

[clownboy]

When the stuff around you is more important to you than the people around you.

[Cap]

When the behaviour is not sustainable.


Cap

[glinert]

Greed when you lose sight of happiness and love and family for money. When you only make friends for more power and money.

[SpiderMonkey]

When the stuff around you is more important to you than the people around you.

This is a good definition.

I see greed as an addiction to possession. Making money seems like getting a hit for some people.

[clownboy]

I see greed as an addiction to possession. Making money seems like getting a hit for some people.

There's a reason they're called the Seven DEADLY Sins. And you're correct, each is like an addictive drug.

[Anarchocommunist]

when just having money is a source of happiness. not a tool for other things, but just the never ending lust for having more. like a junkie. but i really like the definition of when the things around you are more important than the people around you. totally spot on.

[SueDeNîmes.]

Hey, Goranhammer, no right thinking person of any political colour would criticise your desire to improve your lot and that of your family. You deserve nothing but respect and reward for that. THe problem comes if, by persuing this self interest, you impede the ability of others to provide for themselves and their families.

I think there are two types of acquisitiveness:

1) Simply wanting more, which is the most natural thing in the world and not a bad thing in and of itself.

2) The lust for power. Rather than simply wanting more, some want more than the next guy. They'd settle for less as long as it was demonstrably more than others possessed.

This tends to be a male trait and is probably an evolutionary hangover from when the best provider had the most reproductive success. This, IMO, is when it becomes greed

[EDIT: which, I guess, is just a long winded version of clownboy's definition]

[Repubcracy]

Materialism becomes greed when you aren't wanting things to benefit you or loved ones, but when you are wanting things just for the sake of having it.

If you buy a REALLY nice computer (Mac G5!!) to use for work and/or fun, that isnt greed. But when you buy that computer merely to show you are better than your colleague, or just to show that you are better than others, that is greed.

Materialism, in its own right, is not wrong. The only bad thing about materialism is that it can turn into greed very easily.

[The Engineer]

A want or desire becomes ?greed? when one attempts to invalidate the principle of a fair trade; attempting to take a greater return than what they have contributed. If one attempts to purchase a product for a price lower than the seller is willing to agree on, they are practicing greed. They are attempting to invalidate the laws of economics and take what they have not earned. Greed can only be utilized through force to break the rules of fair trade.

[Repubcracy]

If one attempts to purchase a product for a price lower than the seller is willing to agree on, they are practicing greed.

Not necessarily, that might just be someone who wants to get the best deal possible. Haggling a seller to give them a lower price is rude, but not greedy.

When people say "Things can't buy you happiness" they're wrong. Things can make you happy. The thing is that things shouldn't give you ALL your happiness. Love, life, and liberty should make up the rest of your happiness.

[Goranhammer]

With the exception of this passage...

A want or desire becomes ?greed? when one attempts to invalidate the principle of a fair trade; attempting to take a greater return than what they have contributed. If one attempts to purchase a product for a price lower than the seller is willing to agree on, they are practicing greed. They are attempting to invalidate the laws of economics and take what they have not earned. Greed can only be utilized through force to break the rules of fair trade.

...I've agreed with pretty much everyone here. This rather shocked me, as well. Many of the people on here give the illusion that having too many material possessions is greed. If I have more money than that person, and don't give to that person enough to make us equal financial-wise, that I'm greedy.

The above example is nothing more than good business sense. I should know, I was a business major in college. I don't feel that being opportunistic is being greedy. Some may disagree, but I believe this whole-heartedly.

[STA]

Here's an honest question...

For each individual, how much does one have to possess before they become "greedy" in your eyes?

Enough for there not to be enough for everyone else.

Do you only want enough money to live and eat very modestly?

No, I want as much as I can get, then If I look like a greedy ogre I can just give away a small fraction of it to the poor or charity and I will still have my vast fortune, and will look considerate at the same time.

Do you want enough to provide for you and your loved ones very modestly?

More.

Do you want to live a comfortable life, and want your family/children to do the same?

Yes, but I don;t want spolit little brats so I wouldn't give them anything they want, I would still make them do chores and so fourth for money and wouldn't just hand it to them.

Do you want to live/provide the absolute most you possibly can?

Yes.

[Repubcracy]

Here's an honest question...

For each individual, how much does one have to possess before they become "greedy" in your eyes?

Enough for there not to be enough for everyone else.

But there isn't enough for everyone else, there are MANY poor people who are very lower class. Thus, are we ALL greedy?

[STA]

My bad, I should have been more percise with my wording, I meant enough for everyone else to survive if spread equally.

[Goranhammer]

No, I want as much as I can get, then If I look like a greedy ogre I can just give away a small fraction of it to the poor or charity and I will still have my vast fortune, and will look considerate at the same time.

My bad, I should have been more percise with my wording, I meant enough for everyone else to survive if spread equally.

I think these two statements contradict each other completely.

In one instance, you want to sacrifice everything next to beans and water everyday inside a rusty shack so everyone else can be alive with beans and water inside a rusty shack...and on the other instance, you make it sound like you want a bunch of material possessions, and just give a token contribution out to the poor just so you can say "you're concerned".

Which is it?

[Al-'Alim]

I think it becomes greed when we take more than we need. Once we have what we need why take more? Because we wan't it. But greed is not nescsarilly a bad thing.

[STA]

No, I want as much as I can get, then If I look like a greedy ogre I can just give away a small fraction of it to the poor or charity and I will still have my vast fortune, and will look considerate at the same time.

My bad, I should have been more percise with my wording, I meant enough for everyone else to survive if spread equally.

I think these two statements contradict each other completely.

In one instance, you want to sacrifice everything next to beans and water everyday inside a rusty shack so everyone else can be alive with beans and water inside a rusty shack...and on the other instance, you make it sound like you want a bunch of material possessions, and just give a token contribution out to the poor just so you can say "you're concerned".

Which is it?

In this world there is more than enough for everyone to have a shack and beans.

Take as much as you can get until there is just enough for everyone else to live off when spread equally, that way you can both be rich and sleep at night knowing they could still survive if they just policed themselfs better.

[Goranhammer]

You do realize that by posting on here with a computer, you already have more than "your share" of even worldly distribution, right?