What Is The Love of Money?

“For the love of money is the root of all evil ...” – 1 Timothy 6:10

Father Anthony, my parish priest, was emphatic last Sunday as he preached that greed is the cause of all problems. I'm pretty sure I heard him say that everything bad in this world is rooted in greed. An over-generalization? Perhaps.

Inside Trading and Ponzi Schemes

That morning the headlines read “Trader Draws Record Sentence” in reference to Mr. Raj. Rajaratnam. He was the hedge-fund manager recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for insider trading. The judge said during the sentencing that this billionaire’s crimes “reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated.” This guy is one of the many billionaires now serving time in prison for white collar crime. Remember Bernard Madoff, the guy who scammed many in a multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme? He is serving 150 years. Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron President, is now serving 24 years for fraud and insider trading.

Occupy Wall Street

Several days ago a crowd calling themselves “Occupy Wall Street” (O.S.W.) staged a sleep-over protest in front of the federal reserve bank here in San Francisco. The O.S.W. protest included people from all walks of life and belonging to all sorts of groups. A member of one of them handed me a flier inviting me to come and join them. The group is an anti-capitalist movement protesting the greed in corporate America. Similar protests were bubbling away across the nation, from New York to San Francisco, from Denver to D.C., and allegedly gaining momentum. They seemed to spring out of nowhere, overnight!

Foreclosures on the Rise

The electronic and ink news media are headlining foreclosures as banks get more aggressive with their debtors. Yes, foreclosure numbers are rising again. Pundits and laymen alike put the blame for the debacle squarely on the backs of the bankers and the brokers. They are the ones responsible for granting home loans too easily. Then they took those loans, bundled them up into securities, and resold them at inflated prices. And greedy investors bought them. All this activity put the housing market squarely in the hands of greedy sellers and home prices started to inflate far beyond the intrinsic value of the properties.

Greed Is Good

When Gordon Gecko declared that, “Greed is good.” in the movie Wall Street, he became the symbol of high-class greed – greed that was okay! – for the generations that followed. As I have mentioned before in this column, I have represented many clients who owned several houses. These are not rich people. They are just ordinary, hardworking, middle-class folks who found a way to purchase several houses. One gentleman worked for Wal-Mart and he owned 20 houses at one point. Of course, now he has lost all of them and is currently struggling to save the house that he lives in. Was avarice at play here?

Law School Teaches That Money Is Everything

The year when I entered law school in the early nineties, the series called “LA Law” was a hit. Our prime-time tubes showed lawyers driving luxurious Mercedes, wearing expensive suits and working in dazzling offices. It often championed themes such as “Winning At All Costs!” or “Money Is Everything!” That year applications to law school skyrocketed.

Big Business and Big Government

I've heard people argue that our current wars were caused by greed, that the worldwide sex slavery of women and children is caused by greed. I’ve read that greed is the reason that the country is controlled by the big business tycoons of the finance, insurance, agricultural, pharmaceutical, weapons and petroleum industries – not by the will of the people. Senators and Representatives are cheap – such a deal! –  when you have a billion dollars to spend.

Denying It

As Fr. Anthony continued, he seemed to be preaching that greed starts in the family. And then he pointed at the congregation. “We are greedy,” he proclaimed. “Look at our culture and what we as a people promote,” he continued. “Look at how you treat your children, look at your marriages,” he challenged us.

I understood that we cannot deny our responsibilities to teach our kids the fundamental value of giving and serving others. But I don't have to admit that my greed has any part of what's happening in today's world. I could have walked out of mass that Sunday. I’m not greedy. It’s not my problem. It’s those corporate giants. It’s the banks' fault. It’s those greedy billionaires, but certainly not me. I’m not greedy.

No Denying It

Hold on. Those bankers and brokers, those inside traders and fraudsters, those lawyers and the little guys scheming to get ahead at all costs; all of these people are members of my society. And a whole movement protesting the presence of greed in our financial and governmental institutions has appeared almost out of nowhere. All these phenomena are from the same milieu I'm a part of – American Culture. These greedy men didn't just appear; something made them the way they are. Something made it all acceptable. Come to think of it, would I have done any differently if certain “opportunities” had presented themselves? Without cutting myself any moral slack, I think I may have done the same. If I saw a way to get extra income for my family, to get the funds for the kid's college, I could have very well done the same.

Birthplace of Greed

Greed does begin at home. When we teach our children to go to school so that they can be wealthy in the future, we may be sending the wrong message. When we buy them the latest gadgets, the most fashionable clothes, and provide them with luxury, we may be setting them up to be greedy. Can we really blame Wall Streeters? We're just as greedy. We find it easy to blame it all on the greedy bankers. The economic downturn is their fault. And the greedy lawyers and the greedy little guys, too.

Greed and Grief

Sorry, it starts with me and you. We all have fanned the spark of greed, the flames of which are now engulfing this nation. As the economy sinks deeper into trouble, as joblessness increases and foreclosures remain high, we need to face a stark but sobering truth – this is a nation of greed. And yes, Fr. Anthony, all this greed is indeed causing all this grief.