ABC aired “Greed” with John Stossel on Feb. 3, 1998 at 10 p.m. PST. As I sat there and watched the history, the interviews and the discussions, I began to feel an unfounded hope. Finally, someone mainstream had found the truth, and they had gained the trust and the permission of the establishment to broadcast to broadcast the truth everywhere. Maybe he has found the truth, but it is a truth that I am unwilling to accept.
After talking to people on both sides of the issue with Ted Turner representing the “greed is bad” side and a philosopher and an entrepreneur representing the “greed is good” side, Stossel ended his special news magazine with the editorial that as long as thievery is illegal, greed is a force for good. This view was supported by the numerous claims that people working in their own self-interest have continuously wrought good for the planet.
An example used in this report was that of steak. How is it that steak gets to a New York grocery store? The ranchers who work 15-hour days don’t care about the people in New York, but they do care about the money they make from ranching. The same holds true for the slaughterhouse workers, the packagers, the makers of the packaging, the propane providers (which is used to thaw frozen water for the cattle in the winter), the truckers who transport the steak and the grocery clerks. All of these people work together to bring you a steak, not because they care about whether or not you get a steak to eat, but because they want to make money. It is in their own self-interests.
A question to the philosopher was who did more for mankind – Mother Theresa or the guy who went to jail for junk bonds? The emphatic answer was the junk bond king. He helped fund new corporations and kept others from going out of business (among these were CNN, Mattel and Time/Warner). This, in turn, provided tens of thousands of jobs. All Mother Theresa did was go into the slums and suffer, and what’s so great about suffering?
The entrepreneur’s point of view was that Ted Turner’s donation was “stupid.” That money could have been invested elsewhere to build buildings and create jobs to support themselves. This promotes the view that people deserve respect rather than looking at them as another hungry mouth to feed.
The faults, or perhaps the shortcomings, of charities were pointed out. The U.N. is known for its bloated, wasteful bureaucracy that bogs down its charities. The specific example of lifeguarding was used. A man began a lifeguard training program that produces more alert, better trained lifeguards than the same American Red Cross programs. He has innovated new techniques, which the American Red Cross has adapted into their program. He is making a profit; the American Red Cross does not.
They looked at areas in our capitalistic society that were not motivated by greed, specifically the school system where classes continue to decline. Students assault teachers, and nobody learns – except when you teach greed. The students are all interested in learning how to make a buck, and when one teacher started teaching this using his own experience in an import-export operation, his students miraculously began to learn, and at least three of them run successful businesses themselves.
Another point of the show was that there isn’t one pie with a finite amount of pieces, rather there are many pies, and new pies are being manufactured every day.
So it has become painfully clear to me that apparently my entire world view has been incorrect. I have been thinking with my heart and not my head. When logical arguments are presented as they were in this program, it is all but impossible to argue against them. Ted Turner ended up walking off the show when he was presented with the arguments against giving money away, and he was supposed to be representing the “greed is bad” side.
Changing a world view in midstream is not easy. World views evolve, morphing into other similar views, to go from one end of the spectrum to the other takes more than time and logical arguments. It takes patience, work and more necessarily, it takes a life-changing event. It also takes a profound belief that the new view is the right one.
This show only touched on the worker’s perspective. Focusing mainly on the fact that no one has ever refused a wage increase. Letting us know that cutting jobs, even in a company that is making a profit, is just good business, and that working 15 hours a day is a good thing.
But as long as we are all only out for ourselves, we all stand a better chance of making this world a better place. It is charitableness that is tearing this country and this planet apart, and we need to be aware of all of the facts. The facts are:
After talking to people on both sides of the issue with Ted Turner representing the “greed is bad” side and a philosopher and an entrepreneur representing the “greed is good” side, Stossel ended his special news magazine with the editorial that as long as thievery is illegal, greed is a force for good. This view was supported by the numerous claims that people working in their own self-interest have continuously wrought good for the planet.
An example used in this report was that of steak. How is it that steak gets to a New York grocery store? The ranchers who work 15-hour days don’t care about the people in New York, but they do care about the money they make from ranching. The same holds true for the slaughterhouse workers, the packagers, the makers of the packaging, the propane providers (which is used to thaw frozen water for the cattle in the winter), the truckers who transport the steak and the grocery clerks. All of these people work together to bring you a steak, not because they care about whether or not you get a steak to eat, but because they want to make money. It is in their own self-interests.
A question to the philosopher was who did more for mankind – Mother Theresa or the guy who went to jail for junk bonds? The emphatic answer was the junk bond king. He helped fund new corporations and kept others from going out of business (among these were CNN, Mattel and Time/Warner). This, in turn, provided tens of thousands of jobs. All Mother Theresa did was go into the slums and suffer, and what’s so great about suffering?
The entrepreneur’s point of view was that Ted Turner’s donation was “stupid.” That money could have been invested elsewhere to build buildings and create jobs to support themselves. This promotes the view that people deserve respect rather than looking at them as another hungry mouth to feed.
The faults, or perhaps the shortcomings, of charities were pointed out. The U.N. is known for its bloated, wasteful bureaucracy that bogs down its charities. The specific example of lifeguarding was used. A man began a lifeguard training program that produces more alert, better trained lifeguards than the same American Red Cross programs. He has innovated new techniques, which the American Red Cross has adapted into their program. He is making a profit; the American Red Cross does not.
They looked at areas in our capitalistic society that were not motivated by greed, specifically the school system where classes continue to decline. Students assault teachers, and nobody learns – except when you teach greed. The students are all interested in learning how to make a buck, and when one teacher started teaching this using his own experience in an import-export operation, his students miraculously began to learn, and at least three of them run successful businesses themselves.
Another point of the show was that there isn’t one pie with a finite amount of pieces, rather there are many pies, and new pies are being manufactured every day.
So it has become painfully clear to me that apparently my entire world view has been incorrect. I have been thinking with my heart and not my head. When logical arguments are presented as they were in this program, it is all but impossible to argue against them. Ted Turner ended up walking off the show when he was presented with the arguments against giving money away, and he was supposed to be representing the “greed is bad” side.
Changing a world view in midstream is not easy. World views evolve, morphing into other similar views, to go from one end of the spectrum to the other takes more than time and logical arguments. It takes patience, work and more necessarily, it takes a life-changing event. It also takes a profound belief that the new view is the right one.
This show only touched on the worker’s perspective. Focusing mainly on the fact that no one has ever refused a wage increase. Letting us know that cutting jobs, even in a company that is making a profit, is just good business, and that working 15 hours a day is a good thing.
But as long as we are all only out for ourselves, we all stand a better chance of making this world a better place. It is charitableness that is tearing this country and this planet apart, and we need to be aware of all of the facts. The facts are:
- Creating jobs is an act of charity
- There is no such thing as too much
- Whenever you want something done right, make sure to hire someone who stands to gain from what you are proposing