The word “greed” is tossed out so often and it always intrigues me just what people mean by it. Just what is “greed?” Some people (no names) toss this word off their fingertips all the time and frankly I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.
Webster defines this word as… : a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. Ok, let’s take a more careful look at that definition. Let’s say a very rich person spends a million dollars on a painting that he just loves. He thinks this painting is so remarkable, so beautiful, that he is willing to buy it for a million dollars so he can look at it every day in his house. Me personally? I would never spend a million dollars on a painting, but that is just me. That painting, or ANY painting, is not something I am interested in buying at that price, even if I was filthy rich. But the things that I buy would curl your hair as they might seem so “strange” to YOU, but not to me. Everybody is different, and this is a very important thing to consider. NOBODY can judge what another person finds important, interesting, beautiful, desirable, or worthwhile. (Just look at your hairstyle…smily thingee goes here) The question is…is that greed? I don’t think so. Is buying anything that one does not “need” greed? Hell no! you better check your inventory of your life if that is the case, you would find that every human on earth is greedy, and therefore the definition is rendered meaningless. The definition clearly states “an EXCESSIVE desire for MORE of SOMETHING” This says to me that greed is only achieved when you already HAVE “enough” of this particular “thing” and yet you want more anyway. You want more than you can actually “benefit” from because you already have “it” THAT is greed. When you “hoard” something for no reason, and NOT when you simply “want” something that you don’t have. Wanting something IS NOT GREED. Get that through your fricking head. Wanting something that is not “needed” is not greed. Wanting something you already have plenty of is greed. Which brings us, inevitably, to money. Money can be turned into ANYTHING, so one cannot say that you have a quantity of this particular one “thing” that meets the classic definition of greed, UNTIL YOU CLARIFY IT. It is not “one thing” it is “anything I can think of” so it must be treated slightly differently. Now, if you want a billion dollars but your actual, realistic “wants and needs” are only a million dollars, then you are greedy. But if you have reasonable plans for every single dollar? THAT IS NOT GREED, THAT IS PERFECTLY NORMAL GODDAMIT.
