6 Signs Our Culture Is Sick With Greed

http://www.alternet.org/economy/6-signs-our-culture-sick-greed

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1. There’s still no public shame in profiting off Wall Street fraud.

This week a self-styled financial advisor on the investment website Seeking Alpha celebrated the investment opportunities created by the wave of criminality and fraud which has overtaken JP Morgan Chase. The bank’s epidemic of internal fraud has led to tens of billions in fines during the tenure of CEO Jamie Dimon.

2. Greedy CEOs still have credibility in the media.

It’s not just Dimon, of course. Having shattered the middle class through their accumulation of wealth, the devastation they inflicted on the global economy, and their mistreatment of employee pension funds, Wall Street CEOs apparently still have enough credibility in some quarters to be treated as experts in fiscal responsibility.

3. Executives are now trained to rip people off.

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The first story they told was about the Gillette Company. As most non-bearded men know, the Gillette business model is a sneaky one. The company ropes customers in with low-cost razors and then charges an outrageous amount for replacement blades.

4. And then there’s Kanye.

Our idealization of greed isn’t confined to the business section of our newspapers. While white liberals decry the idealization of wealth and hip-hop music, that’s not a new phenomenon either. In fact, it can be found in both lifestyles and the recordings of their own childhood musical heroes.

“Money can’t buy everything it’s true, but what it can’t buy I can’t use ….”