Greed Counters Greed
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rentiers
It took me over 40 years to realize that greed is the primary law of the universe.
How else can one explain state medical boards being controlled by drug companies? Or the “defense industries” of the United States bombing Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine? (And further back to 1935, see War is a Racket.) How about bankers having multiple ways to counterfeit currency in plain sight?
What about the Citizens United ruling by the supreme court, which officially coronated corporations and their MONEY as the kings of the USA?
But there’s another type of greed, which is just as narcissistic and primitive as the greed for money, and just as exponential.
It’s the greed to populate. To reproduce. To “grow to the sky” — Genesis 15:5 says, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have.”
So what can put the brakes on this greed to populate? To summarize Malthus, from centuries ago:
Malthus regarded ideals of future improvement in the lot of humanity with skepticism, considering that throughout history a segment of every human population seemed relegated to poverty. He explained this phenomenon by arguing that population growth generally expanded in times and in regions of plenty until a relatively large size of population, relative to a more modest supply of primary resources, caused distress.
If you can’t feed your family, they die. If you can’t find a job that pays well, you won’t get married or have children. (Women don’t marry down.)
And if the majority of jobs are controlled by mega-corps, mega-banks, and mega-mutual-funds — which are all owned by rentiers — do you think these jobs will pay a generous salary, or a pittance?
The greed of the rentiers is directly in opposition to the greed of the masses. Greed vs. greed produces homeostasis — a draw, a tie.
So when you see “coffin apartments” in Hong Kong, slums in Brazil, $4000/month NYC apartments with the bathroom sink implanted on the toilet tank — you’re seeing the forever battleground of greed vs. greed.
The only way to win is not to play: “Better one handful with tranquility, than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” — Ecclesiastes 4:6
Even Jesus said: “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.”
Are the rentiers secretly benevolent, i.e. Noblesse Oblige? (Not if they are hypocrites with more than 2 children.) Psycopathic? Ignorant or incorrect about humanity’s “true” sustainable population level? It doesn’t really matter, because the outcome is the same: their greed is the only force powerful enough to balance the greed of the masses.