Taming Greed

Greed is with us, and always will be. But what people do to fulfill their selfish desires can be changed.

This is the beauty of the market: in a market system people make money by fulfilling the desires of others. Adam Smith pointed this out over two hundred years ago. More has been done to feed the hungry by farmers and grocers trying to make money than by do-gooders. And the same goes for many other goods that fulfill human needs.

This is not to say that the farmer, the industrialist, and the inventor are motivated purely be the selfish desire for money. The market process works both ways; it encourages selfish people to be benevolent, and rewards benevolent people with material rewards. For example, Henry Ford became very rich fulfilling his dream of making automobiles available to the lower classes. I think this is a beautiful thing.

But note that the market process is imperfect. It also rewards annoying telemarketers, high pressure salesmen, telephone psychics, sleazy market manipulators and other questionable characters. The market does not eliminate the need for true benevolence; it merely reduces the cost of being a good person.

This paid benevolence only applies to those who have something to give in return. For those who have no ability to work and have no savings, we need charity to provide their wants. Or, we can try to reduce the need for benevolence further yet by having a government run welfare system. Fear of the IRS is a selfish motivation just as much as desire for profit. But like the market system, this is an imperfect solution; the selfish motives of politicians, government workers and government contractors are often at odds with the benevolent stated goals. Many well meaning programs degenerate into high paying work programs for people who could get real jobs in the private sector.

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