Imagine this ...

[GeorgeGist]

Without greed, the US would not exist.

[RandomThoughts]

1. You assume all acquisition of wealth is greed.

The motive for acquisition can be greed, or it can be the joy of a challenge.

Many acquire money because it makes them feel special, it is how they judge there own worth. They think by being rich they have proved some special quality they have. If that is the motive, then others being in suffering could also create this feeling, and it may be based on insecurity. However I have read articles from hundreds of rich people that know the money is not who they are.

The defining difference is how someone treats the money, do they horde it and worship it as a dragon would guard his horde, or is it just another thing, not really the important part of life, but something that can after a conquest of acquisition, be shared back to society.

And by sharing it back to society, all new challenges of acquisition that do not just hurt others become available.

It is same for the desire for power, what is the intent? to control others? to make things the way you want them? or to throw the crown down, and know you really are average, and gifts are just that, and be happy with the days that go well.

Does the greatest sports player play just to be seen as the best, and would they make a snide hurtful untrue remark about another to get there? Or do they play because the joy of using the talent they were given, then use their popularity for causes that might help others, or inspire others. And the real funny thing is, most players that play to be recognized, or for pride, fall off there game. It seems they are in the zone when they do it for the better reasons.

What is the motive, what is the intent...

[OneBlueSky]

2. maybe . . . maybe not . . .

the whole American experience might have turned out differently, if . . .

"To those who followed Columbus and Cortez, the New World truly seemed incredible because of the natural endowments. The land often announced itself with a heavy scent miles out into the ocean. Giovanni di Verrazano in 1524 smelled the cedars of the East Coast a hundred leagues out. The men of Henry Hudson's Half Moon were temporarily disarmed by the fragrance of the New Jersey shore, while ships running further up the coast occasionally swam through large beds of floating flowers. Wherever they came inland they found a rich riot of color and sound, of game and luxuriant vegetation. Had they been other than they were, they might have written a new mythology here. As it was, they took inventory. -- Frederick Turner, Beyond Geography: The Western Spirit Against the Wilderness. Viking Press, 1980.

(my bold emphasis) . . .