The LOVE of MONEY is the root of all EVIL.
Where would we be without greed? Most would assume humanity would be in a much better place without it. But is that really true? Probably not. If greed was a downside in all cases then it wouldn't even exist. That is simply the nature of evolution.
We only complain when things go wrong.
It's easy to point out mistakes, but once we actually start tinkering at 'solutions' it becomes painfully obvious that the 'cure' is often worse than the disease. Get rid of killing/hunting only to have an overpopulation problem. Get rid of an 'evil' government only for that vacuum of power to be filled with an even worse entity. Cut off your nose to Spider Face.
I watched a video the other day making the claim that "corporate greed" was responsible for inflation. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. What a ridiculous assessment. Of course it was in response to the even more ridiculous that the working class are responsible, so perhaps a slight upgrade in logic employed.
The reason why it's so 'funny' to say corporate greed is the problem is that everyone is greedy and there is no cure. People enjoy talking as if they are not part of the problem and if they were in charge they'd do things differently. Spoiler alert: those people are liars... or perhaps just completely lack any self-awareness because they don't even know they're lying.
Like, what are they going to do? Tell people to stop being greedy? We realize that the world used to work better before with the exact same amount of greed present, yeah? It's obvious that greed has nothing to do with the problem, but that's what people want to see. They want everything to be simple and fit in a box... and I feel like they also want to invent a problem in which they are not only powerless to stop but also blameless and don't have to take any personal responsibility or action.
The biggest problem with the way we're doing things is,
the more we let ya have the less that I'll be keepin' for me.
Blackrock
I've heard a lot of chatter about the Blackrock Bitcoin ETF in the context of greed. People are so saturated in their own delusional mind-state that they invent problems that don't even exist.
But what if the ETF settles in cash and not Bitcoin?
Oh no if that happens Blackrock won't have to buy Bitcoin.
But what about my bags, bruv?
I've seen like half a dozen people talk about how Blackrock might not buy Bitcoin, and honestly the thought process it takes to get there is mind-blowing.
The logical way to have this conversation is to ONLY be thinking about number go up and how big or small your crypto bags are going to be in the future.
Blackrock is a hedge fund. That is their professional job. They are one of the biggest and most successful hedge funds in the world. Asking if they're going to buy Bitcoin or not is like asking if they're going to hedge or not. Will they do the thing that they do? Dumb question rooted in blind greed and scarcity mindset.
Not buying Bitcoin would be the equivalent to naked short selling. It would mean that Blackrock would be selling Bitcoin that didn't exist. They'd simply have a ledger of how much they owe to people and settle in cash.
However, my understanding is that naked short selling is very much illegal... so I really have no idea why so many people are pitching this idea that Blackrock can open a spot ETF without buying Bitcoin. If I buy BTC at $30k and sell at $60k, Blackrock owes me double my money. If they didn't buy BTC they were shorting BTC.
If Blackrock goes bankrupt because they went macro-short on an asset they brought to the masses... is that bad? Blackrock sucks let them burn. Seriously the conversation is just so dumb on so many levels... why are so many people talking about it? I'll tell you why: because the only thing that matters is number go up and people don't think about anything else. Blinded by greed to the point of spouting nonsense.
Scarcity
So why is greed good? What's the point of it? Like most evolutionary paths everything is rooted in survival. Greed is the driving force that creates ambition and incentivizes risk. It's quite possible that without greed a whole lot less would get accomplished in this world. At least that's the theory.
Again, people don't think about it like it's a diminishing return. We only complain when we see a problem, and never think about what problems that problem has already solved. People and economies are complex organisms, and we can't tinker with ecosystems without knocking over some dominos.
Tribalism is inherently decentralized
As a crypto community, everyone here values the power of decentralization. Centralized entities are corrupt and we can no longer trust them. The system needs to change, and the people with all the power are "too greedy" and abusing that power.
The ironic thing in all of this is that tribalism is the root of the very worst kind of greed in this world. It's the kind of thing that allows you to hire a friend for a job instead of someone else much more qualified (nepotism). It's the kind of thing that allows mobsters to be ruthless in their professional lives but generous and caring in their family life. It's the kind of thing that creates wars and imperialism, but we continue to lean into tribalism... because that's just how we're built. It's in our DNA. We are pack animals, but our scale has ascended to something much greater than our intrinsic social dynamics can handle.
Volatility
The world is full of uncertainty and variance. This is another reason why greed must exist. It's also the reason why the world flocks to USD when shit hits the fan. As much as we hate to admit it, USD/bonds are the most stable and trustworthy assets in the world during global uncertainty. Until crypto creates something better it's what we're stuck with in terms of unit-of-account and measuring the value of all known assets within this unit. The USD yardstick is strong.
In ancient Egypt if they got a low flood the people would starve. It was only until grain silos were built and that surplus food was actually saved inside them that this problem as mitigated. I wonder how many people looked up at those silos during the good times and just chalked it up to powerful people doing greedy things. Many times our interpretation of the world and reality of it simply don't mix.
At the end of the day greed is employed to generate these surplus assets in case we need them for later. Volatility and uncertainty are tightly interwoven with greed, so it's no surprise that many people in crypto end up being extremely greedy. More volatile environments create more greed on a basic level.
Conclusion
So is greed (the love of money) the root of all evil? I used to think so, but then I realized that I was doing what everyone else was doing: only paying attention to something when it was a problem, and never acknowledging the good it does or why it exists in the first place. Greed is neither good nor bad, just like a gun is neither good nor bad. At the end of the day these are just tools of humanity, albeit extremely destructive ones. I suppose the real question becomes: what are we destroying?