Greed. excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or possessions; avarice; covetousness.
Avarice. insatiable greed for riches; inordinate,miserely desire to gain and hoard wealth.
Random House Webster's College Dictionary.
Greed is a social phenomenon. It has to do with personal character. It has nothing to do with law. We can be greedy for things we are legally entitled to.
If I go to a all-you-can-eat buffet and eat six entrees, ten desserts, etc., I am legally entitled to it, but I am also greedy. (I will also probably be sick, but that's another matter.) If I send my kids out on a community easter egg hunt and tell them to grab all the eggs they possibly can, race around, grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, they are legally entitled to what they find, but they are greedy.
When a CEO cuts 20% of the jobs from a company and reduces all wages and salaries by 25% and then persuades the board to increase his salary from $1 million a year to $10 million a year (to make up for the fact that his stock options are worthless because the stock price is in the tank) he is legally entitled to the $10 million, but he sure as hell is greedy.
Greed and legal entitlement are different things completely. |
