Greed Is Good!

GREED IS GOOD
Greed is good? Or is it? The question comes to mind when considering we are in a world and a nation of people who are out to make a buck. Have times changed though? Are people starting to realize the light that money and things don’t make a person better. I once heard from a man who lost everything he had. Dave Ramsey, well renowned financial analyst and talk show host, bought a ton of real estate when he was 21 years old. He was a millionaire by the time he was 26. By age 30 he was broke! He and his wife had a small baby and were flat broke. People were suing him over and over again. He became on a first name basis with the man who delivered court orders. Mr. Ramsey began to realize that greed had taken over his life. He was forced to turn his life around the things that he surrounded himself with before became less important and the people around him became more important. He once said who we are really out to impress anyways with all these things and all this money. People who were once powerful bankers and investors are now being uncovered as crooks, thieves, and liars. The big bankers somehow forget all of their moral obligations when money comes into play. “The duty of loyalty means that a director has a legal and ethical obligation to administer to the affairs of corporation with personal integrity, honesty, and candor.” (The Essentials of Business Law, Liuzzo, page 270) Their loyalty become obstructed and their honesty a blur when the dollar signs appear. If these people like Bernie Madoff had considered what life might be like if he had just acted morally would his life possibly be better? We will never know the thoughts of Bernie Madoff. Mr. Madoff is now sitting in his 9 million dollar pent house on house arrest for embezzling 50 billion dollars from investors. “The crime of embezzlement may be defined as wrongful taking of money or other property that has been trusted to a person as part of his or her employment.” (The Essentials of Business Law, Liuzzo, page 36). We wonder if he is contemplating his duty of loyalty and this duty of care to the people he stole money from or if he is just simply sorry he was finally caught after all these years. Greed can be a very dangerous thing. When greed is involved there seems to be no remorse to fault just the victims who are left with empty pockets and broken hearts.