Monday, March 21, 2011

Greed or Enterprise

Ran across this interesting essay written by Charles Kadlec and published in the on-line jouranl, Business Insiderlast week.  The column appears in a section tagged  "the Daily Reckoning." 

It's worth reading.  Let me know what you think after you've read it.  What do you make of his distinctions?

Enterprise, Not Greed, Creates A Better World
The Daily Reckoning
Mar. 16, 2011, 3:58 PM

Greed: The word itself has become central to the political debate over the budget, taxes, union benefits, what constitutes ethical behavior, and the shape of our society.

The problem is the indiscriminate use of the word has blurred its meaning.

Those on the left use the word as an epitaph against the successful as epitomized by Sen. Bernie Sanders “When is enough enough?” he asked in his impassioned plea for raising tax rates “on the rich.”

But at the same time, those on the right embrace “greed” as vital to the functioning of our economy. Economist Walter Williams, for example, wrote in his essay “The Virtue of Greed,” “It’s greed and not compassion that gets things done.”

This lack of moral clarity threatens our liberty. It destroys our ability to distinguish between theft and the pursuit of happiness; between vice and virtue, and undermines our ability to be a self-governing people based on the norms of ethical behavior.

To read the entire article click here.

1 comment:

rcorum said...

Larry, this is without a doubt the best guest article you have ever posted. Balanced, but hard hitting both extremes get a strong message. This ought to be read by everyone. In fact after I read it my first thought was, "That will preach."