Greed: A Treatise In Two Essays

This is an immensely wealthy society but it is not a humane society. Greed has become a force creating precipitous inequalities, and divisions in this society now approach a kind of wealth apartheid, but greed is rarely seen as a moral wrong. This is not the first time the nation has produced huge economic inequalities. Today, as the free market continues its global advance, the values of democracy are being torn. Two ideologies popular in the era of robber barons appear to be rising again: laissez-faire and Social Darwinism. Freedom, coercion, debt, credit cards, meritocracy, sociopaths, environment and corporations are all examined. Is exploitation wrong? The free market conceals a cultural contradiction: the everyday workplace vs. democracy. How can we hope to export democracy if we don't have it? Our economic theory is antiquated and we need to step a little closer to modern reality. What motivates people in today's society: is it the pursuit of happiness, or is it surviving in an endless round of work-and-debt? Or is it the avoidance of fear? Remedies and how you can make a difference.