This is the time of the year when greed is more prevalent. It's easy to see the little ones with their dozens of Christmas presents saying, "more, more..". After ripping the paper of one pressie, it gets thrown aside while they make a quick grab for the next one..."more, more..."
Then we go to the other end of the scale and we have James Packer. He's trying to avoid paying twenty two million dollars in taxes. Now everyone claims a few dodgy things in their tax return, but come on, 22 mil is huge ! Is he greedy, or as some may say, just smart. Nah, he's a greedy pig, with his nose well and truly in the trough. I remember his first wedding cost 10million and people say, "well, it's his money..". I think it's sick and a prime example of our sick society. I'll go further and say that people who have enough spare money to invest in the share market are also greedy. Investing money to make money is something I find quite strange, because it's just a bunch of figures on a computer, not actually making or producing anything.
Don't get me wrong, the greed monster gets me at this time of the year also. All the Christmas catalogues make me go "I want, I want..", but it's an easy choice when you don't have any money. This will be some peoples argument. "If you had heaps of spare cash, you would be the same as everyone else...greedy !" I will probably never know, but I really don't think so, not when there are people in this world going without food and shelter.
For want of a better word, I am a communist. I think wealth should be spread evenly throughout society and yes, I know it's not going to happen in my lifetime. Who is worth millions of dollars a year..bank bosses..actors...heads of state ??? No one, but there are a lot of people that deserve more than nothing....
I don't know of the alternative to capitalism, but something has got to change, otherwise one day the poor WILL rise up against the rich and society WILL collapse.
Funny thing Bob, we started off with bugger all and have worked REALLY hard to get everything we have. We've been fortunate but we're so rich in other things like family, friends, health too. I've never forgotten how I managed to feed us on $10/week and went without so my kids could eat... All the things I learned from my mother about making good healthy food out of things other people would throw away...you don't forget that. What the world needs is people to look at their fellow man/woman/child and feel some responsibility for their health and happiness. That would be wonderful.
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