Greed and the Left

Left-wingers think right-wingers are evil. Right-wingers think left-wingers are stupid. This is why right-wingers always want more discussion and debate, and left-wingers just want to shoot.

Here is a classic example of left-wing stupidity: their conviction that more power must be put in the hands of government to protect us from big corporations and “the billionaires,” because capitalists and corporations are “greedy.” Yet if they are greedy, why are they greedy? Because greed is a common human fault. That being so, civil servants in government are equally likely to be greedy; so nothing is accomplished thereby. It’s pirates robbing pirates. The left seems blind to this; nor can they conceive of members of the professions, the “experts,” being greedy.

Recent scandals surely make it obvious that greed is indeed common among government officials and professionals. But the free market system and open competition make greed in the private sector self-defeating: you get too greedy, you lose market share; you go out of business. There are no such checks on greed among the professions or in government officials—except superiors or colleagues who are equally likely to be greedy.

It is an amazing feat of stupidity that the left has never figured this out.