why is the economy greedy

[DDR Agrarian]

why

[Blake's Baby]

Welcome DDR Agrarian, this will be moved from 'Introductions' to 'Learning' I expect. Introductions is to say "hi I'm DDR Agrarian, I live in Winnepeg and I support the Communist Party of Canada, Stalinism For the Win!" and such like. Threads asking questions belong somewhere else.

The economy is 'greedy' because that's the logic of capitalist accumulation. Money begats money which begats more money. At least, in theory. It chases around the world looking for the best returns; if it can't find suitable investment opportunities, it speculates on fictitious bubbles. The rich, after all, have to keep getting richer, or what is the point?

[rylasasin]

The short answer:Because it's completely impossible for capitalistic economies to be anything else.

[DDR]

I swear it's not a sock of mine :confused:

[Q]

Welcome DDR Agrarian, this will be moved from 'Introductions' to 'Learning' I expect.
You are correct. Moved.

To the OP: Please avoid one word posts, especially if they are opening a thread...

[Illegalitarian]

The accumulation of capital is the life-essence of capitalism. The beast has to be fed

[Creative Destruction]

For your question, I draw your attention to:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/

[Loony Le Fist]

Maybe you could elaborate on your question. Are you asking why does a capitalist economy encourage greed?

A capitalist economy encourages greed because the basic metric for optimization is capital accumulation. The goal of every company in a capitalist economy is to become a monopoly. This is of course at odds with the goal of every other company. The whole thing is one giant paradox.

It's goal is to turn a majority of people into a bunch of material obsessed, greedy, and impoverished people that provide the means so that the mooching minority--the neoaristocracy--can live in luxury. Why people want to live like that is beyond me.

[cyu]

Any economy where TV programs are regularly interrupted by attempts to get you to want more stuff, will result in more greed. Any economy where radio programs are regularly interrupted by attempts to get you to want more stuff, will result in more greed. Any economy where large portions of web pages attempt to get you to want more stuff, will result in more greed. Advertising is the preacher. Greed is the religion.

This is partly the fault of Keynesianism - the theory tries to keep the velocity of money high, try to keep people employed. The intentions are good, but keeping people employed doing useless things isn't exactly the perfect system. Part of the unintentional side-effect of Keynesian policy is to turn a blind-eye to greed and consumerism, since they keep employment rates up, even if the end result is useless work and environmental devastation.