(ThyBlackMan.com) Greed and the desire for self-improvement are two separate things. Greed by definition is an “EXCESSIVE” desire to achieve goods and wealth. This is often done at the expense of others, and ultimately leads to corruption and manipulation to satisfy that excessive desire. Self-improvement and a desire for upward mobility, on the other hand, pushes for excellence and growth within the context of the system and an unwillingness to go “out of bounds” to achieve success.
I have heard the Occupy movement being classified as many things by its 
opponents. The opponents say they are people envious of what others have, people who won’t be satisfied until they can take all the wealth away from people who have it. Now some fringe elements of the movement probably do feel this way. I would venture to guess however that if you asked them, the majority would say,
“We are cool with individuals who work hard to achieve and build good strong businesses, but what we hate is the greed that led to this economic meltdown, and the flaws in our government system which tolerated it”
The best analogy I can provide to examine greed versus self improvement is this. I wanted to be a great basketball player and win. So I worked hard, increased my skills, became better, better than others who did not have my basic skill and desire. My efforts lead to my improvement, which subsequently improved my team and led to a higher level of achievement for myself in pursuit of my goals. That form of upward mobility is perfectly fine. The improvement of individual skills (in the case of business, entrepreneurship and business growth) within the context of a system (American capitalism under a Republic form of government) to achieve a personal goal, that also benefited the collective.
Now if I was greedy I could still work to improve my skills to achieve the win, but the excessive desire of greed almost by definition means that corruption, illegality, and disruption of the system would occur if by normal means I could not achieve my goal or was never satisfied with the level of what I could achieve by normal, fair means. So paying off refs, harming other players, manipulating the system to win, and ultimately devaluing the system (as we see today in a variety of corporate and government circumstances) is all in the cards for those who are greedy.
Greed and self-improvement have similarities but in many cases divergent methods. Greed has no respect for the system if the system gets in the way of its excessive desires. Self-improvement seeks to grow as much as it can within the context of the system.
We need to mitigate greed through law, and facilitate self-improvement through law.
All of it has to been done within the context of the collective, because that is what any organized government’s role is, to protect the collective over the long run. Even within the context of America and the invisible hand theory that so many conservatives champion, the role of the individual does not supersede the collective.
A recent article in Bloomberg titled: Growing Income Gap May Lead U.S. More Vulnerable to Crisis (10.13.11) points to the fact that unlike what Gordon Gekko stated in the movie Wall Street, over the long run greed is not good. An equitable system that promotes self improvement in the context of the American system for the good of the collective as a whole is a must.
So that is one of the things the Occupy Movement is saying, get rid of the greed for the good of us all.
Staff Writer; Dell Gines
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