Greed and Happiness

Greed has been a topic of quite a bit of philosophical debate over the past century.  Most philosophical and religious creeds hold that greed is an evil which hinders man’s happiness.  Greed, it is argued, is an inward-looking, selfish desire which puts one’s own desires above all others’, and leads its victims to lie, steal, and cheat in order to achieve those ends.

Yet others such as Ayn Rand and those of a more libertarian philosophy have extolled the virtues of greed (or selfishness).  Passionate pursuit of one’s own self-interest, as long as it is kept within the bounds of legal and moral ethics such that it does not infringe on another’s liberties, inspires individuals to create value for themselves and society.  It drives efficiency and productivity, inspires creativity and innovation, and permits the rapid growth of economic progress from which even the poorest benefit immensely.  One can best create value for himself, and thus better pursue those things which he values most, by creating value for others who then trade money (i.e. value) for the value he created.  Thus personal and societal value is promoted.

It is in reconciling these differing conceptions of greed which comes to the crux of the philosophical, ideological, and political debate of our time.  Indeed, we have supporting evidence of both conceptions, and little evidence to disprove either.  This must lead us to believe that these different perspectives can indeed be reconciled.

There is and must be a difference between the virtue which Jefferson called “the pursuit of happiness” and the vice of greed.  Because one pursues his or her own self-interest cannot and must not be condemned immediately as selfish and greedy.  Indeed, pursuing what makes us happy, provided it doesn’t unjustly make another unhappy, must lead to a happier society in general.  We must not condemn the pursuit of happiness, whatever that happiness may be.  It comes at no one’s expense.  This is where liberals often err.  They believe that any gain must necessarily come at the expense of another, that the pursuit of self-interest is equally the pursuit of otherly harm (i.e. greed).  But this is not so, and is a grave misconception.  Examples abound of mutually beneficial exchanges and win-win scenarios, the foundation of capitalism.

We are all divinely entitled to pursue for ourselves, to the best of our knowledge and ability, those interests which we believe will afford us the greatest happiness.  What another chooses is the path of greatest happiness is not in our purview.  We may seek to help, teach, inspire, etc. others of the path we believe leads to the greatest happiness, but because we are all individual and distinct, our own preferences and desires cannot grant the same happiness for others as it does for us.  Thus it becomes a meaningless and counterproductive task to force others to pursue our own chosen path to happiness. 

Now, there may be and certainly are universal truths which apply equally to all.  The Gospel, for example, certainly may bring happiness to all.  But to push such a path onto those who would not choose such a path for themselves cannot lead them to happiness, even if it should.  Because they do not believe that it will bring them happiness must ultimately cause them to not find happiness in this path.  Their adherence to the path is involuntary and resented.  They perceive that another path would bring them greater happiness, and thus this path that they are force upon denies them that happiness.  Conservatives often err here in their passionate pursuit of societal morality.  Though a noble goal, it cannot be achieved by force, but only by education and example.  People must be shown the way to happiness, not forced to it.  For a man cannot be happy against his nature.

There is recent research which has uncovered the concept of pathological altruism, which refers to a sociopathical need to help others even when that “help” does more harm (to themselves and to those they mean to help) than good.  I believe this problem abounds in our society, more so perhaps than even the authors of the study perceive.  It seems to me that nearly all of us, in some way or another, desire to force others to be happy.  We wish to outlaw drugs, pornography, excessive salaries, unhealthy foods, and sometimes even opinions (i.e. discrimination).  Some of these may be good goals.  But force through legislation cannot create morality, and simply drives the immorality dangerously underground.  For we all pursue happiness in our own ways (even if it is unhappiness that we ultimately achieve), and a law cannot change our nature.

Greed is the exploitation of others for our own benefit.  But pursuing our own happiness by whatever means we see fit, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others, is not exploitation.  And as long as it is seen as such we will continue to forfeit, little by little, our individual right to “the pursuit of happiness.”  And without that right, none of us can ever really become happy.