Under Capitalism and free markets, individuals are incented to be productive and to profit from free exchange of goods and services with others. All gain value in the exchange and no greed need exist. Those who truly act greedily will not survive for long: either competition will force them to be more rational, or others who recognize their greed will lose trust and stop doing business with them; and government will appropriately punish those who violate others’ rights in the process.
Liberals assume that the “greed of rich capitalists” justifies virtually any actions government wants to take against them. First, not only are true capitalists not greedy, but they have always been the most benevolent. Second, this assertion rests on the false assumptions that success and wealth are achieved by the wealthy sacrificing the poor to them and, therefore, the wealthy have a duty to serve the “greater good” through redistribution. Third, nothing can justify government actions against them except their initiation of force against others.
In all statist systems, government interferes with the private sector, and forces individuals and businesses to act against their own judgment and to sacrifice for the sake of the collective/society. This creates conflict among men and causes the real greed - greed of those who:
· Use political power over others and necessarily violate their rights. E.g. public unions that want forced economic advantage over the private sector; environmentalists who are willing to destroy our economy for the sake of their irrational ends.
· Participate in the redistribution of wealth: the recipients and government that forces it via taxation and special interests; and those who support the entitlement culture and can never take enough.
· Demand a right to happiness (vs. only “the pursuit of”) and to the necessities required for a lifestyle (vs. only life).
· Dictate an income threshold beyond which one has “made too much” and then tell him how much he should be allowed to keep. (Public sector excluded)
· Pressure corporations to cooperate in exchange for government favors and to sacrifice their principles for their own protection. (Cronyism)
· Add “pork” in legislation (greed for votes).
· Pay no income taxes but demand more from those who do; not those who want to keep the income they have earned at no one else’s expense.
Government simply needs to leave individuals alone to produce wealth, stop envying and punishing the most productive among them, and accept the fact that it is true capitalism that provides the highest standard of living for all while minimizing the concern for greed.
