Is it Greed ... or Success?

Okay … I am headed to airport today and off to Africa. As I haven’t had time to follow up my post on Consumerism, I thought I would at least address some of the questions that came via e-mail. While most of the notes were very supportive, a few people were wondering why I didn’t come down harder on “the sin of greed.”

There are plenty of spiritual gurus out there holding forth against greed. It’s an easy target to hit, and a highly popular one to boot, as who among us can be “for” greed … other than Gordon Gekko, that is.

If by Greed people are referring to an obsession with acquiring material goods without working for these goods--without exchanging value for value—or to that spiritual malady where individuals value things above God, I say, sure, greed is evil: It is a psychological and spiritual cancer that sucks the life out of our souls. However, it appears to me that today when people denounce greed they are, more often than not, referring to those individuals who have spent years mastering their skills, have superior decision-making processes, have sacrificed sweat and sleep for years, and are now enjoying the rewards of their labor.

Financial success is not proof of greed or that others have been cheated or otherwise abused. On the contrary, in the majority of cases, wealthy people acquired their wealth by being quite good at serving others.

As the war against consumerism is usually a war against freedom of choice, I think much of today’s blather about greedy people and corporations is actually a war against both individual wealth and freedom to pursue your own happiness.

One e-mailer writes:

“But Monte, we must sacrifice for the common good. Shouldn’t other’s come first?”

I don’t even know where to start here.

The fact is that all of these greedy executives and corporations have provided millions of jobs, isn’t that all for the common good of America? Moreover, when these people—usually politicians—talk about sacrifice they obviously aren’t volunteering their wealth to help out the poor. I mean, have you seen the average percentage of income these cheapskates give to church or charity? Abysmal.

Speaking of charity, the citizens of the USA are far and away the most charitable people on the planet. The thing is, however, most of the citizens prefer giving to charities that are actually making a difference here and abroad, rather than throwing it down the bottomless pit of some Federal boondoggle or, even worse, a United Nations project.

For many of our politicians, Sacrificing for the Common Good is only a rhetorical device for saying, “Pay more taxes, as we know best how to spend your money.”

Really? How’s that 50-year war against poverty going? And tell us about all the Social Security money just sitting there waiting for the gazillions of Boomers that will be retiring over the next decade! Managed that account quite well, didn’t ya’!

Anyway, when did God die and leave someone else—or something else, such as the Federal Government—in charge of telling me how much money I am allowed to make, how to spend my money, or how to live my life?

When politicians begin speaking about sacrifice, one of the questions we must ask is, to whom do we sacrifice? Who or what is it that will be receiving this sacrificial offering? As a Christian, I embrace Christ’s command to love others in word and deed, of being charitable to the destitute. However, as I understand the biblical idea of charity, it is a free-will offering not a demand placed on me by others.

Money taken from me by force is not charity it is thievery, even when the Federal Government does it via confiscatory taxes.

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2009