Battling and defeating greed
DOES greed have a bona fide place in our lives to govern our behaviour?
I was 23 in 1987 when Oliver Stone’s masterpiece movie Wall Street was released. Michael Douglas won 1988’s Best Actor Oscar for portraying that movie’s fictional corporate raider, Gordon Gekko.
Most movie buffs would know the single most famous line of that blockbuster is Gekko’s: “Greed is good!”
That philosophy makes for wonderful entertainment, yet is morally bankrupt. As I’m sure you know, from an ethical perspective that sentiment is both vile and wrong. Yet, many people in real life — including corrupt politicians who rob public coffers and bad business people who place profits ahead of public well-being — cause enormous harm when they give greed a free rein.
Some time ago I learnt that brain research experiments conducted on laboratory rats suggest greed is NOT good. I subsequently wrote a column to that effect two years ago, which you may read here: www.nst.com.my/lifestyle/sundayvibes/2017/04/235082/money-thoughtsgreed-not-good
Today, though, I want to revisit our all-too-human tendency to cave-in to our baser instincts (like greed and selfcentredness, for instance) to better understand how the financial planning process may help us be less greedy and happier, more productive, better members of society.
It was the Lebanese-American writer, poet and philosopher Khalil Gibran (sometimes spelt Kahlil Gibran) who asked: “Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?” He was driving home the truth that those of us who live in relative abundance would be better off not spending our lives grasping endlessly for more and more ‘stuff’ or ever more money to hurl into a chasm in our souls that tons of designer goods can never fill.
You see, there is a potent paradox at work in our lives. When we choose not to give in to our baser instincts such as greed, and instead proactively decide to
exercise kindness (which I wrote about last week and that you may access here: www. nst.com.my/authors/rajen-devadason), as well as to commit to generosity and compassion, we improve our odds of living lives of abundance, goodness and meaning.
Of course we won’t always succeed, but so what if we don’t?
OF ALTRUISM AND AVARICE
The writing of ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-Tze explains why we should strive for altruism and not avarice:
“There is no calamity greater than lavish desires;
“There is no greater guilt than discontentment;
“And there is no greater disaster than greed.”
Therefore, in our imperfect world where goods and services tend to become more expensive each passing year because of the inflation expectations embedded within our global financial system, the best that we may pragmatically do is to try — over time — to grow a little less greedy and a tad more generous.
For instance, if you have a family with young children you will want to house and educate them well so as to nurture holistically well-developed individuals. You won’t want to raise a useless generation of weak, entitled brats.
Well, I have as financial planning clients a married couple with four fine children. This family is not super-wealthy yet the kids have been guided by their parents to donate a portion of their regular allowances to support poor orphans in other countries through the humanitarian initiatives of World Vision International (www.worldvision.org).
Their parents have succeeded in teaching these children that there will always be people around them whom they can and should help. I know all four of those children will grow up to be fine, well-balanced, generous people.
Similarly, up the far end of the wealth scale, I have also been privileged to work with extremely wealthy clients who are dynamos of generosity. As such, their children have a ringside seat in the arena of larger scale philanthropy. Undoubtedly some of those wealthy children will develop into future philanthropists in their own right.
Tragically, though, I have also observed some wealthy people who are more focused on endlessly amassing more and more money than on using even a tiny sliver of their present fiscal surplus to ease the burdens of the less fortunate.
Throughout the seven years I lived, studied and worked in England from 1982 to 1989, Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Iron Lady, was prime minister. She once said, “It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but love of money for its own sake.”
CHARITABLE GIVING
I agree with what Thatcher said, probably because I consider myself a capitalist with a conscience, which means I acknowledge the power of capitalism but believe people matter more than mere money. So, when guiding my clients and teaching my financial planning workshop audiences, I advocate structured generosity that embeds charitable giving within their budgets.
We don’t have to give a lot to be generous but if we give consistently to causes we care about, we will be rooting out the vilest tendencies of greed within us. While Thatcher wasn’t universally loved, I often found her actions inspiring. Unfortunately there are other politicians whose views I abhor.
Decades before Donald Trump became president, in the same year Wall Street was released, 1987, he co-authored with Tony Schwartz the book Trump: The Art of the Deal.
Near its beginning, Trump wrote: “The point is you can’t be too greedy.”
I disagree.