Is it finally time for greed to be treated as a mental illness?

[hifiguy]

Serious greed - the kind where half a billion, five billion, ten billion, fifty billion just isn't enough? Clearly there is something seriously mentally wrong with those people.

Seems to me that it is. Discuss.

[JPnoodleman]

1. It is worth looking into...

At a certain point, once someone has secured enough wealth to in theory buy themselves and their descendants a private island each unto the 20th generation it begins to be a sign of some strange obsession.

What is the purpose of this wealth? What is its function? After a few million one has to ask what is this money supposed to do or serve?

More aptly as money becomes entirely not "earned through labor," but accrued through essentially wizardry made legal by the rules of "The Game," we call the economy, what exactly is the significance.

Go the Koch brothers vault, if you took half their wealth today but never told them this happened would they even notice? Yet people continue to fixate on gathering wealth well past the point that realistically even 20 generations of descendants could ever theoretically use for anything. We should question to what ends does making this wealth gathering an acceptable practice serve? To what end and to what purpose? What did one do to get this wealth?

[hifiguy]

3. I think it's the same mental glitch that makes people hoard cats,

newspapers or other junk. But those people are harmless except to themselves. The greedheads spread destruction through all of society in pursuit of their monomania.

[JPnoodleman]

7. Indeed, even a life of intense hedonism and or big projects...

Can't seem to justify wealth gathering past a certain point. I mean, okay, so maybe you've grown to love hookers, just all the sex and beautiful call girls you could want. 20 mil at most and your set to visit the bunny land ranch or hire as many call girls/boys as you could possibly every need in a life time.

Or, in another sense think of it like temperature, once you have the thermometer passed 100, does it matter too much how much higher it goes, its already TOO BLOODY F'ING HOT!

As to society, once your wealth gathering has reached a point that your basically a threat to the rest of the group by virtue of your wealth and influence, it becomes a problem. At least a Feudal Lord had a kind of Stewardship contract with the people and the land. These people have more wealth, power and influence than the land barons of the Middle Ages and yet have none of the social responsibility, none of the expectations, and none of the duties.

Its a cell in a body gone rogue, I.E. Cancer.

[grasswire]

2. yes, with an intervention

...and that intervention is appropriate taxation.

[The2ndWheel]

4. Civilization is a resource concentration mechanism

Money only has value because we all agree, or at least enough of us agree, that it has value. It is only limited by the abstract human imagination, which we try not to restrict.

Attempting to limit greed is like trying to limit progress, or technological advancement. Humans do not do well with limits. We will always try to find a way around them.

[JPnoodleman]

8. Wealth, Power and Influence aught come with some degree of responsibility. /nt

[thucythucy]

32. And yet societies with the greatest concentrations of wealth

tend to be societies that atrophy and die.

Think of France prior to the revolution, or Tsarist Russia. Think of the Roman empire once the republic was essentially abandoned and wealth became concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. After conquering Greece (and assimilating much of its culture) the Romans essentially did nothing in terms of progress--no great inventions, few if any great voyages of exploration. Why invest in new technologies when you can simply buy more slaves or mercenaries to do your bidding? By contrast, Britain had its greatest expansion both politically and technologically when the power of the royals began to be limited, and it became "a nation of shopkeepers," that is, a growing middle class.

Great wealth of the kind we're discussing here--on a level with the Koch brothers for instance--impedes the ability of others to innovate. Look at what's happened in terms of alternative energy. The Kochs have repeatedly manipulated both the markets and, increasingly, local state and federal governments to protect their ability to accumulate more wealth. Their jihad against climate science has delayed progress on dealing with global warming now for at least a decade--to the point where the entire planet is now in jeopardy.

Humans do very well with limits. We have limited strength, limited life spans, limited ability to manipulate time and space. Try raising a child without setting any limits. Try driving to work sometime without obeying "limits" such as stop signs, red lights, speed limits, and see what happens.

We did very well when the top income brackets, under Eisenhower, were taxed upwards of ninety-percent.

Sure, some people will always try to test the limits, some legally, some not. That's not an argument per se against limits.

[Dems to Win]

5. Most definitely. I've said this for years

Put the greedy, empathy-free sociopaths into mental hospitals, treat them well, but don't allow them to control our government and society.

[smirkymonkey]

6. Actually, when it has such a negative impact on society as a whole, I think it should

be treated as a crime and the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[shanti]

9. whatever goes up

must come down. we've been there before, and it was very painful.

[olddots]

10. the greedy are parasites

with 7 billion mouths to feed mother earth doesn't need human parasites .Is it mental illness ? Your'guess is as good as mine , maybe it's an adiction .

[peasant one]

11. I am uncertain if it is a mental illness

I think it is a moral failing and were I a religious person, I think that the rich would have a hard time in any afterlife for failing to give this fortune away or for amassing this in the first place ("Behind every great fortune is a great crime." Balzac). I think the rich should pay a much higher tax rate and there should be a 99% tax on income, assets, and inheritance over a certain amount (don't know what that amount is but I'm sure we could figure that out).

[thucythucy]

33. Who was it again who said

"It is more difficult for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle"?

Oh yeah, that guy.

I agree with everything you said.

[burrowowl]

12. And not as a virtue

as it has been from Raygun on instead of a deadly sin!?

[Nye Bevan]

13. If so, there were a lot of long lines of Powerball players a couple of weeks ago,

to recruit new patients from.

[hifiguy]

14. Nope. The kind of greed I am referring to

is found only in those who already are wealthy. What kind of mental miswiring drives someone who already has a billion dollars to lie, cheat, steal and ruthlessly exploit other human beings all in the name of making another billon dollars they will never be able to spend in three lifetimes?

That is purely pathological.

[Nye Bevan]

16. Ah. So it's really the "lying, cheating, and stealing" that is the mental disorder here,

not so much the "greed".

The condition where someone is not only greedy but lacks a conscience to prevent them lying, stealing and cheating in pursuit of more wealth is well known as sociopathy.

[LanternWaste]

25. I too pretend that greed is same thing as desperation

I too pretend that greed is same thing as desperation, bemusement, entertainment and a host of other reasons... as the existence of other possibilities would illustrate a monotonic inference. Oh dear.

[moondust]

15. It's the system.

Depersonalized corporatism and globalization have encouraged amoral bahaviors like psychopathic greed; investors demand it.

[sir pball]

17. Greed Is Good.

[bemildred]

18. Yes. It's an obsession. nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. No, someone will try to apply "greed" to explain their crimes.

And, some judge will agree.

Affluenza, it's not just for kids.

[raccoon]

20. Works for me! nt

[Trailrider1951]

21. Yes, of course, probably related to OCD

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Ever watch "Hoarders" TV show?

http://www.hulu.com/watch/542362#i0,p0,d0

[Donkees]

22. Dopamine: Politics, Religion, and Power

[pampango]

23. We would have to treat one whole wing of the GOP (the establishment 'greed' wing) as mentally ill.

Great idea!

If we follow that with treating 'fear and hate' as a mental illness, we will have to treat the other wing of the GOP (the 'fear and hate' of the tea party wing) as mentally ill. Then we would have the whole party diagnosed accurately.

[Octafish]

24. Ask your doctor if Avarist is right enough for you!

"Works for me!"



Part of the cashectomy treatment option (patented).

Most seriously: Great idea, hifiguy! I would add that we use the KGB-CIA model prisoners treatment model.

[randr]

26. Any one with over a billion is seriously ill

if they do not spend each day finding people who need money and making the world a better place.
I have posted this before but just to make it clear how much a billion is:
You can count to a thousand in about seven minutes.
You can count to a million in 13 days.
If you want to count to a billion?
Your gonna need 33 years!

[OkSustainAg]

27. Could it be

a form of hoarding disorder?

[hifiguy]

35. I think so. Probably related to OCD.

[mountain grammy]

28. Living in a resort area we see first hand how the rich spend.

10,000 + square foot monstrosities, with only the finest furnishings, and four car garages for all the toys, for a mansion that sits empty 90% of the time. Meantime, locals lucky enough to find a place to live, are paying big bucks for substandard housing. Go to almost any resort area in America; locals are living in ratty old trailers surrounded by the spoils of a trickle down economy.

[ileus]

29. Time to lock up all the rich.

If not in jail, then the mental health hospital...

[NowSam]

30. Long overdue eom

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

31. No. You can't lump it in with mental illness because...

it doesn't fit the criteria.

It's the product of social mores. Egalitarian societies got wiped out. Greed is a behavioral product of hierarchical or capitalistic societies.

My guess is you're asking, do greedy people have a personality disorder? That's the correct question. Narcissistic, Sociopathic. Now we're talking. But greed is a symptom, not a disorder.

[thucythucy]

34. Interesting point. NT

[leftyladyfrommo]

36. Are you kidding?

Greed is what makes the world go round.

[GeorgeGist]

37. Greed is a social disease.

[Throd]

38. How do we cure the greedy?

[Half-Century Man]

39. It is an addiction. The one with the greatest toll on society.

It inhibits civilization.
The real question is how is a society supposed to flourish bearing the enormous weight of the mega wealthy?
It is like expecting an individual to flourish bearing an enormous tapeworm