The Most Controversial Sin - Greed

There have been several words that have been applied to me over the years including 'liar,' 'satanic,' 'self righteous,' and my personal favorite string of words: 'dope-smoking hippie fag.' I won't even tell you what a stranger called me because I celebrated a Pistons victory over the Lakers. While I suppose all of these words have had some level of truth to them at one time or another in my life I find it quite unfortunate that the word 'greedy' has never been applied to me by anyone other than myself. I suppose one reason is that while those other terms have been used pejoratively 'greedy' is one that I wear with a tremendous level of pride.

A quick Google search to define greed returns with "[the] excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves." That sounds exactly like me. I want more wealth than I need. I want more property than I need, more food than I need, more DVDs, lovers, and hair cuts than I need. In fact, if need is based solely on daily survival I am super greedy. I may not have developed all the tools required to get more than I need but I sure as hell want them and even take steps to get more than I will ever need to live. The last time I checked I don't need a single book to maintain life, much less hundreds of them, but to some of my friends and colleagues my library is somewhat admirable. I want things that I won't even get to use before I die. If I had the means to do it I would have a heated castle with servants, an indoor pool, and a harem. And cable! Can't forget cable. Castle or not I do not plan on facing death with nothing but zeros in my bank account and I feel like I'm possibly making some errors in judgment if I don't end the year with more money than I started with. I see it as a measurable way to show that I'm contributing to my own well-being.

Being such a big fan of greed you can imagine that I'm often a supporter of those also motivated by greed. Chances are that if you are a semi-rational person you yourself are a pretty greedy person too. Take this into consideration: according to the World Bank there are currently about 1.4 billion people living under the conditions of extreme poverty. They define this as someone living on less than $1.25 a day. That's less than late fees at a video store. That's half the price of a box of Pop Tarts on sale. Two songs on iTunes would cost more than that. In Liberia that constitutes over 4/5 of the population. In the United States the number is so small it isn't even a statistic. You may not realize it, but you are rich. You may not be as wealthy as people who are doing something as important as marrying Demi Moore and playing a TV prankster but the standard of living which you have exceeds not only most of the people alive but almost every single person who has ever walked the planet Earth.

Me being the self-righteous bastard that I am let me make one aside about politics and namely the hot button topic of the day: healthcare. Speaker of the House Pelosi likes to defame those in the health industry, and particularly insurance companies as being greedy. According to an Associated Press article by Calvin Woodward health insurance providers "barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure." I know they make billions but it also costs billions to run these companies. Maybe they are greedy and they just aren't very good at actualizing themselves.

I'm not going to claim to be an expert in economics nor am I going to say that I know how to make the cost of health care decline but since Nancy Pelosi has chosen to target health insurance companies and reprimand them for their alleged 'greed' then I think she may need reconsider her position. Alcohol manufacturers have huge profit margins and it is one of the leading causes of health and family issues but I haven't seen Nancy call them out (or give back their campaign contributions or prohibit their sales in her restaurants).

This isn't to say that I'm one of those individuals who thinks that a so-called public option is gift from Satan bent on destroying Western civilization. I don't even believe in Satan. But what I will say is that in a country where we can use our Kroger Plus Card to get discounts on antiseptics, bandages, pain killers, antibiotics, dozens of different kinds of cold medicines, and literally hundreds of other items brought to us by 20th and 21st century science that to hear people complain about the high cost of MRIs gives me a kind of sickness that even modern health care cannot cure. In America we call modern technology which costs thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars life-saving while in other countries the same term is used for clean water and vitamins. If you've ever taken an Ibuprofen you should be overcome with gratitude. I know I take it for granted.

To tell you the truth I don't know what to make of the proposals for health care reform before Congress. I would think any smart person would look at any proposals government or free market based with a degree of skepticism. Maybe what Congress wants to do will help. I certainly hope that it doesn't drastically increase inflation because people without a lot of money sure as heck don't need what little cash they have to become worthless. As usual I have my doubts about the best intentions of politicians. I mean this with all seriousness: if nearly one trillion dollars are going to be spent on improving health care I would much rather that money be used to help out places like Rwanda or Tanzania where well over half the population live under extreme poverty. I think their need is far greater than America's uninsured.

I'm advocate for greed. Whether it's healthcare or an iPhone I want as much as I can get. So when it comes to pointing the finger at the greedy you don't to have select the companies that build their wealth by providing a much-needed product for millions. Nancy and anyone else like her can single out this self-righteous, ex-dope smoking hippie fag right here.