(no subject)

[luckytroll]

I had a minor realization about greed today.

A lot of it is based on fear - the hoarding squirrel effect.

And a lot of the rest is basically just a result of people being highly competitive.
In a world where only people who have more than you counts against the score.
And in a game which may very well be percieved by the players as zero-sum.

Few greedy people think to them selves "Im going to set out to be greedy"

They set out to increase their status, their security, and the status and security of their offspring.

In a zero sum game - status - in which the differentiator has been set as power - and in which a hallmark of power is material wealth and control of material wealth. Well - its inveitable.

Greed is what these game players get called. What are they to each other?

How does Bill Gates think of Dick Cheney, or Rupert Murdoch, or the guy who owns IKEA?

To them, I suspect - those are the only other people who are real. The people they compete with.

The fact that they are competing at a level that is obscene to the average wage earner seems irrelevant.

Comments

[canuckotter.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on the person. From everything I've heard, Gates probably doesn't have that attitude... He's apparently a bit of a dragon to work for but only if he thinks people aren't putting in their full effort, and the rest of the time he's a fantastic guy to have as a boss and really understands that Microsoft's success comes from the people who actually built the company, not just from him. Hewlett and Packard (the founders of HP) are famous for having been normal folks who really appreciate the everyday lives they lead and just happen to have been worth billions of dollars. There are a few other examples.

Cheney and Murdoch, on the other hand... You're probably dead on. They probably don't consider normal people to be worth their notice. I'd imagine Larry Ellison falls into that category as well. Certainly the owner of the company I just left was that kind of jackass.