Greed is good

[Carrol Cox]

There is a fatal error involved in attacks on the "Greed is good" slogan,
it is double-edged, and the only people it cuts *in practice* are the poor
slobs doing the work. Whenever I praised greed in my classes (and I always
did) the brighter conservative students, and both the brighter and not so
bright among 'run-of-the-mill' working class students *immediately*
recognized it as an attack on the rich.

There is no typographical error in the preceding paragraph. And it is
based on my actual experience both with students and with lower-paid
workers.

"Greed is good" is, in practice, an attack on the rich.

"Greed is bad" is, in practice, an attack on the poor.

The resonance of the *word*, "greed," not the intention of its users is
what has an impact, and the material impact is always on "greedy workers," 
greedy "welfare queens," greedy old people, etc. In practice all too many
people take the "greed" of the capitalists for granted, as a fact of
nature, while the "greed" of the striker who lives across the street or of
the food-stamp user in the checkout line buying some "luxury" is
condemned.

Carrol