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No discussion of greed is complete without a word from Milton Friedman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A

• indiejade 18y ago
  "Is it really true that political self-interest is somehow nobler than economic self-interest?" Taking out the adjective, self-interest is self interest. However, general observation gathers a lot of evidence that beings with political self-interest are usually more aware of the effects of their "greed" on an environment. Especially the global environment. Economic self-interest is about consume, consume, consume in order to profit profit profit. It matters not who or what is being ravaged. Political self-interest at least nudges people to stop, take a deep breath, and look at the effects of such a cycle on an environment. Political self-interest is perhaps more noble in that it requires one to view onesself in the larger context of his or her community at large. Negative externalities, one of my favorite econ topics, are rarely addressed logically by beings who thrive on the consume consume consume in order to profit profit profit cycle. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_externalities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_externalities) *edited ~ not enough sleep last night!
  • anamax 18y ago
    > Political self-interest at least nudges people to stop, take a deep breath, and look at the effects of such a cycle on an environment. No, it doesn't. > Negative externalities, one of my favorite econ topics, are rarely addressed logically NE's in practice are just an excuse to power-grab. Look at all of the measures that are supposedly motivated by NE. Notice the dominant response is "let's tax" but the money isn't used to address the externality.
• pj 18y ago
  For the other side of the video debate, Noam Chomsky (not saying I agree, just sharing the ideas) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFxYyXGMfZM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFxYyXGMfZM