GREED

GREED
7/16/07

I have never had a dislike for money, nor have I had a problem with people who have large amounts of money. The only problem I have encountered with people and money is, when the need to have more and more money is an obsession.

Greed affects the rich and poor alike. I know poor and rich people who are greedy. Greed is a nasty vice worse than any addictive craving. Greed is a vice that breeds filth, misery and pettyness. It breeds hatred and jealousy. It destroys the human spirit and creates misers and miserable, mean spirited people.

I always laugh at the thrift store shopper, who drive up to the store in a late model car. Greedy people do not like to spend money. They like to keep their money. It gives them a sense of power to have money,yet a greedy person would never want anyone to know how much money they have. They would try to conceal it for fear it might arouse suspicion or that they might be found out and have to spend more of their money on something they were getting cheaply or for free. They can never afford anything if you ask them to do something that costs money. Then you have the other side of the same coin. The person who buys everything they could possibly want or need and gives nothing to anyone, and condemns all others less fortunate then they are, gives small tips or no tips at all and expects others to pay the tab. Many will wait 90 or 120 days before they pay a bill; then try to negotiate the bill down. Their money is their own and no one elses; even though they might have stolen it, or inherited it, or honestly earned it, they always feel a sense of entitlment.

Greedy people never bring anything to a party, or insist on going dutch on dates, or get everything used or discounted, clothing from a thrift shop, food from a food bank, or sold beyond the expiration date , or shop for dented cans. Spending money on toilet paper is an offense to all greedy people. Pay toilets are doubly offensive. I had a friend once, who told me his father in law was so cheap , “he would rather squeeze a quarter between his butt cheeks to hold back a bowel movement, than pay a quarter to use a pay toilet.” I didn’t believe him until I met his father in law. I met my friend’s father in law at a race track one afternoon many years ago. My friend drove a modified race car, and asked me to come see the race. His father in law was in the stands with my friend’s wife and mother in law. As I sat down next to my friend’s wife her father asked me if I had a quarter. From what I had heard of him I thought he was charging me for the seat next to his daughter. She blushed embarrassingly and told her father to be quiet. The old man said he couldn’t hold it any longer, and needed a quarter to go to the pay toilet. His daughter opened her purse and gave him a quarter. He left his seat in a hurry blaming his immediate need on the bad, over priced, stadium hotdog he had just eaten.

I once knew a builder who was notoriously cheap and known for cutting corners. He would always undercut his competitors by several thousands of dollars. His houses were thrown together cheaply, yet he always had customers. He drove an old two tone Ford station wagon with his company name on the driver and passenger side doors. He always dressed in overalls and a flannel shirt. In summer he would wear a white tee shirt and overalls. His customers always liked him before and while their houses were being built, then they hated him after they moved in. He lost his contractor’s license after every new homeowner in one subdivision he had built sued him. He was known by everyone as being very wealthy, but kept all his money in his wife’s name.

I decided to write about greed because I was watching the Money Report on television, and saw these arrogant,smirking,greed driven,rich guys, saying, they loved the Bull market, and 40 percent of all consumer spending in the U.S is on luxury items, high oil prices do not effect the wealthy one percent, who have over 50 percent of the wealth in the U.S. One particularly arrogant, self loving , “I love money. More money is a good thing. I love capitalism, I love it!” Everyone at the table knodded their heads in agreement. I had to wonder how hard each of them squeezed a quarter.

L.A. STEEL