Is Greed A Sickness?

Greed is a sickness; that’s just what it is. Some people just get addicted to money. From the lower class to the upper class and everyone in between, there are a lot of people that care more about money than anything else. Sure, these desires do often lead to great inventions or discoveries and such, but usually an addiction to anything is not good for the soul. So, while I will soon be criticizing the very rich, keep in mind that I’m well aware that millions more would be doing the same thing if given the same opportunities. Money is just something that moves people to do all sorts of things, good and bad. We all need money to survive, just like we all need food – and many of us abuse that, too.

With that said, let’s cut to the chase: greed is the number one reason for almost all of our problems. It probably doesn’t hurt anyone that your neighbor is greedy, as there probably isn’t much damage your neighbor can do. The problem is that the richest people around still want more, and they play this world like they are trying to win a monopoly game, often with no empathy for its people. Being compassionate or fair does not help these people make more money – and money is all that matters (to them). I first really started paying attention to this problem many years ago when I saw someone on TV talk about how they were invited to some gathering with some of the wealthiest people in America. He said how he thought people would be sitting around, relaxing, feeling satisfied about making it in this world. But he didn’t see that, everyone there was just talking about one thing: making more money. As I go through life, I see more and more how true that is. Greed is a sickness. These people can’t help it. It’s like an addiction, they want more – and even if they get everything they still won’t be happy. This addiction controls their life, and leads to a lot of bad practices and decisions.

The wealthiest people just put the pieces in place with congress to get another trillion dollars handed to them. It’s not enough; they will get more before this ride is over. They don’t want us to have healthcare because that would mean slightly less money for them. They won’t let their financial interests in fossil fuels suffer, even if you tell them all life will be extinct in 100 years. Nobody knows for sure how long it will take, but this ball is rolling faster and faster downhill, gathering momentum as I sit here and write this. The science is in: this planet is doomed unless we do something now. But we can’t. We have a Republican party selling their souls to get elected in pursuit of money and power. We have a group of people at the very top that buy and control congressmen and senators, mostly Republicans. Don’t just believe me – look up who takes what money from whom and how they vote. In a just society, these people would be jailed for crimes against the people. But instead, many will get re-elected by pretending they care about the people.

Republicans have proven the last two years that they do not care about the masses. To try to end Obamacare with no other plan ready to go, to hand over that much money to the very rich, to cut corporate tax rates that much that fast, to allow monsters to run the EPA, and to allow our president to pull out of the Paris climate treaty. They have allowed the president to take away regulations that protect our health so the energy industry can make even more money.

The rich should have happiness at the tips of their fingers, right? But somewhere deep in their souls they know that what they are doing is wrong. And not just a little bit wrong: people are hurt and lives are cut short as a result of their actions. To cut regulations in order to increase profits at the expense of human lives is essentially murder. The people using their money and power to help themselves and hurt the rest of us will be exposed, sooner or later. Instead, they could be doing great, wonderful things to do a lot of good for many people. This would bring a joy to their lives that another billion in the vault wouldn’t. Even if they were to look at it from a selfish perspective, helping people will make them feel good and make their lives better – better than earning another chunk of change that they don’t need. Grossly rich people should do an experiment and test it out: take a million dollars, find some people in need, and hand it to them in person. I would bet that would be one of their better and proudest moments in their life. And this giving thing goes for everyone else too. If you can’t afford to give money, give time – there are lots of good causes out there that could use help.

This article isn’t about asking the ultra-rich to give their money away; it is about getting them to put the brakes on taking more of ours. If you are worth hundreds of millions or billions, I am asking you to stop. I’m also asking you to help us save our planet; it is your kids and grand kids that could be suffering soon. Greed is responsible for a lot of damage besides climate change, but we need to start taking care of this first. If we can gather enough people with wealth that actually care about humanity, we can accomplish great things and help a lot of people – not to mention save the planet.

It used to be that a person with an average full-time job could support their family. True, they didn’t have cell phone and cable bills back then but housing costs especially have gone up so much that sometimes a person working full time cannot even support themselves these days. But if you look at worker production, it has steadily risen over the past seven decades – and for the first three of those, pay went up accordingly with productivity (i.e. the value of the work done). But around 1972, pay basically stopped increasing and leveled off even though productivity kept steadily climbing. So what happens to all the extra money being made from the work of the employees? It goes to the top, to stockholders, to big bonuses and out of this world pay for the ones in charge. No one is saying to share all the profits with the employees, but it’s time to make sure everyone has a fair wage. $8 an hour is not a fair wage. Anything under $12 is not a fair wage – and I am all for the $15 an hour minimum wage for all adults. Walmart is a good example of greed. The Walton kids are worth tens of billions and growing while they have paid their workers so little that many need government assistance.

The richest 1% in our country have as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Roughly speaking, the wealth in this country is broken up into 3 parts. The top 1% has a third, the next 9% has a third, and the bottom 90% has a third. This is a product of unchecked capitalism. The money is all going to the top, because the top wants more and they can spend the money to get it. This is why we need to remove money from politics as soon as possible. Republicans won’t do it; they are the benefactors of serious bribes, otherwise known as lobbying. People working for the huge industries and for special interest groups, good and bad, use money to persuade congressmen and senators to draft legislation for their cause. Don’t believe me – look it up yourself. We have legalized bribery in this country, which is absolutely hurting the people in so many ways. Greed must be stopped, discouraged, called out, frowned upon, ridiculed, and criticized. I think these rich people had better study up on what has happened in history when one small group wanted too much. I’d like to see a peaceful resolution myself, and I think we can get there.

Judgement day is upon us. Either we choose to do the right thing or there will be serious suffering to come, aside from our species going extinct. There have been campaigns to mislead the people and keep us uninformed and, of course, divided. The ruling party will do what it takes, and a thousand years ago that didn’t mean dire consequences for the rest of the world. But it does now. We need to figure out how to keep the richest people from getting it all. We need to call out the ones who are deliberately damaging our country to obtain more money and power. Fighting greed is a must right now. Too many of us are suffering, or will suffer in the coming years, because the very rich have a strong grip on this country and aren’t letting up. We must expose them, pull up the rocks and shine the light brightly on their souls. We need to get money out of politics now. As the Supreme Court and lower courts are being stacked with judges who will not rule for the people and the government is as dirty and corrupt as we have ever had, we have a fight on our hands. Stand up, vote, be heard; make noise, send texts, emails, and letters; make phone calls. Do your part in saving our planet and saving our country from people with the greed disease. Are you with me?