Capitalists Are Not Greedy, You Are

You've been lied to--led to
believe that capitalism only destroys
and that socialism can provide
better than the free market.
Photo from Wikimedia commons

By Kel Kelly

The term greed is used by socialists to deride people or companies for both 1) becoming wealthy in free markets wherein wealth could not have been gained without having created much more wealth for the rest of society, and 2) causing the economic problems that are in reality caused by the government leaders the socialists voted for. The word greed is used in the former case merely to express jealousy for actions which involve nothing negative or shameful, and in the latter case to assign blame to those who socialists wish were guilty, even though they have no idea who is really at fault.

Both greed and wealth are relative terms. The word greed, defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (like money) than is needed,” shouldn’t even be part of our vocabulary for the most part. Who is to say how much is “needed”? People usually argue that a rich businessman does not “need” billions of dollars, or does not “need” millions of times more wealth than the average person has. But why not? After all, the average person today has millions of times more wealth than the poor in many countries. Those poor would look at us and say that we don’t “need” mp3 players, trips to Disney World, three bedroom homes instead of two, or two family cars (or even one). Three hundred years ago no one had such things. Why do we have and need them now?  But had you been a commoner back then, you would have said that the King did not “need” all his wealth; but most today live better than did kings back then, even if we don’t have as many physical possessions.  When future generations live like millionaires do today, they will say that those who have a trillion dollars (instead of tens of billions that the richest have today), do not “need” it, but will defend their own “need” for living like a millionaire does today. It’s all relative.

The fact is that most of us largely rational human beings are never wholly satisfied. Given the opportunity, we would all like to have more food, more clothing, more or bigger homes, more vacations, a nicer or more elegant automobile, or more dinners and drinks out with friends. My mother has said, as so many people do, that she has everything she needs. She does not want a bigger house or a boat or a newer car. Yet she decided not to travel to Europe last year because of the falling dollar, not to redecorate her out-of-date home, not to buy a separate utility vehicle for running errands—all because these things are too expensive. Though she claims she doesn’t need more wealth, it’s clear that she would enjoy her life more if she had certain things that wealth could buy. We should therefore understand why Donald Trump “needs” five houses, Paris Hilton “needs” a $500,000 clubbing budget, and I “need” an apartment in Paris. These things make our lives more enjoyable.

This is not at all to discount the happiness that comes from spiritual, emotional and cultural experiences; but such things are outside the scope of this book, the subject of which is economic. Although money does not always buy happiness, it often does. It may not solve all our problems, but it sure can solve many of them. It can definitely buy us safety and security for the most part. And once we have our basic needs, money can buy us relaxation, pleasure, entertainment, and a focus away from our worries. It can even get us out of prison in a third-world country (via bribes) after partying too hard and being arrested for drunken tirades towards police officers. Whatever other problems we have in our lives, money can make things better. The more money we have, the more we can enjoy ourselves.

What about corporate “greed”? Again there is no such thing: don’t confuse greed with theft or mismanagement. The actions of Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Skilling, Ken Lay and the like are actions of thieves —like those of a burglar, scam artist, or mugger. These are actions which are against the laws of capitalism.

This essay is an excerpt from Kel Kelly’s book The Case For Legalizing Capitalism, © 2010 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.  It was published under the Creative Commons Attributions License 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/