Written by NEIL GODBOUT
Citizen news editor
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Thursday, 02 October 2008 |
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SALVATION ARMYNEIL GODBOUT
Maybe it’s the only real sin there is because it’s often the source of the other six deadly sins.
Avarice, better known as greed, is not good, despite Gordon Gekko’s famous proclamation in Oliver Stone’s film Wall Street, which is required viewing after the ridiculous meltdown of the giants in the American financial sector.
Politicians on both sides of the border are pointing at corporate greed as if powerful men in suits making a thousand dollars an hour somehow have a monopoly on seeking more, needing more, right now.
We certainly don’t need to be taught to want. Desire lives in the centre of all of our hearts, starting from the youngest age. In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman stories, Desire is an immortal creature, cruel, manipulative, self-absorbed and terrifyingly human.
The last of the 10 commandments is easily the most violated of the holy rules. It says we should not covet our neighbour’s possessions but we all spend our days wanting what we haven’t got.
Everyone enters the marketplace with greed in mind.
Along with the weather, complaining about the price of everything is a surefire conversation starter.
We happily take our pay increases when they come but resent higher costs as if they’re somehow not connected.
We envy (greed’s deadly sin cousin) others who make more money than us, who have a bigger house and nicer car than us and relish the feeling when other people envy us.
We are proud (another deadly sin) when we get free money, acting as if our uniqueness made us more deserving.
We want more for less whenever we enter a store but begrudge our employers when they ask the same of us at work.
We go out of our way to pay the cheapest price and call it thrift but anyone trying to get the best deal out of us is a tight-fisted, penny-pinching, two-bit, chintzy cheapo.
So who’s really to blame when companies in China start spiking watered-down milk with a chemical to make it look like it has its full nutritional content?
Who’s really to blame when Canadians die from tainted meat?
Wickedly greedy business leaders must carry much of the blame but they aren’t the only ones at fault. Consumers demanding cheap products should also be held accountable.
The greed of consumers ties in well with the greed of corporations if shoppers get lots of stuff for cheap while companies pay people a dollar a day to produce all that stuff.
The crisis with Maple Leaf Foods reveals us for the hypocrites we are.
We want governments to slash our taxes, forgetting that our tax dollars pay for things that help keep us safe, like meat inspectors.
We want food companies to provide us with the cheapest food possible, then act surprised when our food causes us harm.
That’s why it’s a deadly sin. We think we’re in control but greed motivates too many of our actions. Greed’s opposite, charity, is too often used as a crutch, to help us justify further greed.
Putting five dollars in a Salvation Army kettle after buying five hundred dollars of gifts is acceptable.
Five hundred dollars in the kettle and five dollars for gifts is lunacy.
So after buying Starbucks for my colleagues on the night shift Tuesday (hardly an act of charity since I happily accept their generosity when they buy me expensive drinks), I took the last five dollars in my wallet and bought myself a lottery ticket, to improve my chances of winning $35 million from zero to a slightly-better-but-you-never-know one in 13 million.
Like a lot of people I know, I only buy lottery tickets when the jackpot is more than $20 million because what’s $10 million these days?
It’s not that I’m greedy or anything.
The money would just look better in my bank account than yours.
Neil Godbout is The Citizen's news editor.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 October 2008 )
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