Contra Ayn Rand, and Gordon Gekko, greed is NOT good
Here is a point I’ve been meaning to make publicly to other Objectivists for many years. I posted this as a comment on John Enright’s post.
Ayn Rand called Galt’s Gulch a “utopia of greed” in Atlas Shrugged, but I think that was one of her tactical mistakes; greed happens all the time and it’s not a good thing.
It seems to me that a valid Objectivist definition of greed would be something like “seeking a value out of context.”
Often the context which gets dropped includes things like the importance of honesty, rationality, or respecting the rights of other people.
It seems clear to me that the current financial crisis is the result of greed - but the greed of politicians, for the most part, rather than Wall Street.
Politicians like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd have been greedy by claiming, in effect, things like:
- that the actuarial tables used in the mortgage industry could be safely ignored in favor of bleeding-heart social engineering programs (ignoring the importance of rationality)
- that they are not responsible for having created the financial crisis, even though they encouraged the subprime mortgage industry and were responsible for oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (ignoring the importance of honesty)
- that American taxpayers should bear financial responsibility for the crisis they created (ignoring the rights of other people)
In such cases, politicians are seeking a value (political power, promoting a social agenda, saving face) while dropping or ignoring the relevant context.
That sure looks like greed to me, and I would expect most Objectivists to agree.
Originally published at Mudita Journal. Please leave any comments there.