on greed

this will sound idealistic, redundant and probably drunk. it seems like the most basic thing we could do to improve society as a whole is to give up greed. the rich and the poor seem to be equally oppressed by this obsession with money: and it is money, not simple material wealth. at some point it seems as if we lost track of what money can be exchanged for and endowed it with an inherent value. current zimbabwe is an excellent example of why being a billionaire doesn't mean shit. i can't fault anyone for wanting to have a more relaxed, more fulfilling, more secure lifestyle: beneficial or not these will always be human desires. money can enable all of these things, but not by itself. meanwhile it has created a society obsessed with the bottom line and willing to sacrifice any principle for the sake of profit. certainly i can appreciate the value of maintaining a productive economy, but it's greed itself that tends to create the biggest problems and i'm sick of the poor paying for the mistakes of the rich. every saavy business man is an expert at diffusing the cost of his mistakes upon the masses (in large part this probably defines a "saavy business man"), but the simple fact that it is common doesn't mean that it is acceptable.

i'm still organizing my thoughts on this subject, but expect more of the same. next week: the commoditization of thought.