Word: greed
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...courage to make this argument? I am not that man. But if I were that man, the case would run something like this: the magic of capitalism, as explained by Adam Smith and his followers, is that it channels individual greed into activities that benefit all of us. "Greed is good," declared Michael Douglas, playing a corrupt financier in the movie Wall Street. More accurately, greed is inevitable. It is part of the human condition. And in moderation, economists argue and history demonstrates, greed is no bad thing. Free-market economies could not function if we were all Mother Teresa...
...there is nothing inherent in the human condition that keeps greed in moderation. So there are laws, and there are appearances. Both these forces draw a rough line--and attempt to police it--between greed that helps other people and greed that hurts other people. Inevitably, though, some will take greed too far. And that's a good thing (goes the argument I lack the courage to make). Why? Because you can't regulate greed with precision...
Keynes used the term animal spirits to describe the motivation of business people. A successful economy needs a culture that encourages them, up to a point. It's a Goldilocks-type situation. You don't want too much greed, and you don't want too little--you want an amount that's just right. But the dials are not all that sensitive. A culture that encourages enough greed in enough people will encourage too much in a few. If nobody is taking greed too far, you can be certain that too few people are taking it far enough...
...other half-hour specials, with animation artists of gradually diminishing stature: Freleng on "The Lorax" and "The Hoober-Bloob Highway," Ralph Bakshi on "The Butter Battle Book." The character detail was more meager, the backgrounds less vivid. Each of the later films was more didactic than artistic: decrying corporate greed and ecological devastation ("The Lorax"), indoctrinating children before they are born ("Hoober-bLoob"), delineating the madness of America's arms race with the Soviet Union. Of course the liberal in me, and the humanist too, cheer these sentiments and hope they stuck in the DNA of the kids who watched...
Palmer’s myopic focus on satiating his own greed is shocking, especially while tens of students—or at least five of us, counting Dartboard—were deprived of pizza. What, Dartboard asks, of distributive justice? What of equality? What of the intersection of justice and equality, namely equity, in which the concept of justice is embedded in the ideal of equality? (Or perhaps it is the other way around?) Palmer may indeed have been “first” in line, but that does not justify his personal choice to preempt Dartboard from getting...