One of the greatest and least appreciated intellectuals in human history is Adam Smith.
Smith was the first person to understand that greed when harnessed in a market system is a productive attribute. In the marketplace greed became a positive value. Smith explained that greed led people to work hard, to be persistent and to act aggressively in their own interests. When a sufficient number of people in appropriate circumstances behave aggressively producing goods and cutting prices, commerce would use the greed for the benefit of consumers and the general public.
Smith understood this and Smith was right. To this day only a small minority of intelligent and competent people in the world understand what Smith taught us.
There is a different problem with greed. The problem arises when greed is outside the commercial marketplace. When government is greedy and lacks restraint we have warfare, invasion of neighbors, seizure of property and worse.
The problem with greed that I wish to discuss in this blog is when it appears in unions that are parasites of government. This has become a significant and potentially serious problem in the United States.
Unions collect dues from their members, and in the United States, these dues are used to bribe the government to pay its own union employees ever increasing wages. In most of the United States government wages are today significantly higher than in the commercial market. The same is true for government employee health benefits and government pensions.
Wherever the unions are restrained by limits on tax collection they always prefer firing the people with the least seniority and giving promotions to those with the most seniority. This often means an increase in crime when the police department fires its newest and most sincere employees.
We are now in a period where we see that union greed has no bounds. When it is inside a corporation union greed can drive the corporation to bankruptcy. One less corporation.
When the union greed is inside the government it simply results in destruction of government services and an occasional bankruptcy of a local government. Not a good thing.
Greed in the form of unions seems to have no restraints at this juncture of history and is harmful to all concerned except the union members who have seniority.