The Twin fears of Greedy People

I cannot understand people's greed. "There is enough in the world for our need, but not for our greed". I seriously cannot understand the concept of greed. We need a certain amount of money to run our lives in a way where we have the freedom of not having to produce everything we need, enough money to facilitate our lives so we have more free time, we have our basic needs met and we have money to multiply money so we can exist in a world of growth and advancement, where money helps the cycle to grow other people and ourselves. 

The whole point of having money is not the money itself but the gratification of becoming the type of productive, intelligent, resourceful, creative person in that process. What is money? It is not paper and numbers. Money is a symbolism of the value generated by an individual, a collective group, a society, a country, an economy. It is Economics 101. Any high schooler should know this. 

So it goes to mean that in order to have more money, you simply become a person who generates more real economic value with the resources you possess. To have more money, you help more people, says T.Harv Ecker. And then when you have more money, you help even more people. You do this through your creative use of your resources and the resources around you. For sustainable wealth, you must also use resources in ways that does not diminish their numbers in an unreplenishable way.  That sounds like a plan to me. 

This being the case, it is absolutely not necessary to practise corruption or wasting taxpayers' money. Why should there be a need to be greedy and to impoverish others for  your own vulgar accumulation of money? Fear? Fear that you can't get into an "inner ring", fear that your kids can't afford to go to college, fear of losing your job? 

Well, it isn't written in  blood that you have to go to college. You go to college for the love of learning and challenges and to gain from other people's experiences and expertise, not for a piece of paper that said you attended for a set amount of time and somehow managed to pass a set number of exams. 

And, like C.S. Lewis says, the "inner ring" is an illussion, a circle of people we want to belong to in order to feel important. Well, if you understand that this need to be "in" is simply a manifestation of preconceived ideas of importance (i.e. Ego) and choose to simply Be instead of "being in", then there is no need to need to belong to an inner-ring, which C.S.Lewis describes as an onion -  you get through one layer, there's another, then another...until you are alone and find nothing there that matters. 

Or maybe you want to feel safe; but if you've robbed so many people of the life they deserve, how can you possibly feel safe even in your gated community? All that needs to happen is a revolution that takes apart the systems you have put in place to repress others. 

What is wealth if you eat alone because no one respects you as a person? Or you eat with associates you know want to see you fall so they can take over? We fool ourselves that money is the solution to everything, that it will bring us complete power and that a life of decadence is desirable. Has not history shown us the foolishness of this notion?

Money cannot buy the most important things : faith, loyalty, trust, love, friendships, solidarity, virtue, honour. So why covet it?

Money is supposed to be an enabler to bring more intellect, health and prosperity to others. That is why I cannot understand this concept of greed. Money is supposed to connect us more, not separate us from the rest. Wealth is used to educate, bring progress, bring health, bring unity, bring beauty and preservation. To own all these things as an exclusive group that is unproductive but drains the resources of the more productive groups in order to finance these ideals is futile. It is futile because all these things are not supposed to be exclusive. 

I shall summarize greed as this : Unproductive people who want other people's cake and eat it. If you're creative and productive, you will not feel a need to exploit others and deny them their share in order to increase your own.