I wrote a comment on Karen Sugarpants’ wonderfully written post entitled Maybe This Isn’t My Place to Say

Go ahead, go read it.  It’s not too long.

Back?  Ok.

In my comment, I talked about greed, the more salient points included here:

[...]

People reap what they sow. The sooner that’s realized the better. We cannot coddle and take care of the lazy and greedy without paying the price. Within a generation or two we’ll have no worthy soldiers due to our eating and exercise habits and we’ll be bought out and destroyed by our enemies.

[...]

Greed is wrong on all sides. I think the difference in the politics comes down to how one defines greed.

Earning something is not greed. Taking something that’s not yours *is*.

Bankers who fleece their customers and use predatory practices to make money are employing greed. So are fat and lazy people who expect the government to provide food and entitlements.

I don’t know what’s worse: greed combined with aggression or greed combined with apathy.

And now I feel that I want my own blog post on this subject.  I had written before on Spending and Greed (long post) and while my goal isn’t length, it’s kind of on the same subject.

I have so much in my head right now on the topic of greed, I fear that if I write it all down, I’ll have another lengthy post no-one wants to read.  So I’ll sum it up, and ask if you have anything to add.

1. Greed, in my view, is taking more than you need.
2. Notice that I said “taking”, not “making.”
3. Being wealthy does not equal greed.
4. Wanting what is owed to you is not greed.
5. Wanting something that is NOT owed to you can be greedy.
6. People who take from others what is not rightfully theirs is greed.
7. In #5, those “People” can be just about anyone, from savings and loan managers who divert funds to themselves, to talent agents who funnel their client’s money into their own accounts, to people on welfare who could otherwise work and make a living.

I think that greed has been around since there were humans and greed won’t go away.  However, it seems the apathy we display is relatively new.  Only since we had automatic appliances and processed foods and electronic gadgets and robotic assistants and government entitlements and sloth-inducers such as TV/games do we really actually risk having a society that cannot take care of itself.  

And I don’t mean the day-to-day social self-reliance… I mean actually being able to fund an army with suitable volunteers.  How long will it be before our 18-35 year olds are either too fat, too lazy, too apathetic or too “empowered” to serve?