Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Greed (Part 2 of 3)

Last time I brought up the touchy subject of greed and shared Merriam-Webster’s definition:
Greed: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/greed

The problem with this definition is that it is very subjective.  What is considered excessive?  What is a need?  In other to run a bot, we need Internet access.  But is wireless access needed?  You would think not, but if you put your mind to it, you can device scenarios where wireless Internet access would be needed to run a bot.

The same thing can be said with excessive.  A bot with 10,000 cards may seem excessive to a new player, or a casual player.  But veteran bot owners will say that the minimum for a good bot can begin at 30,000 cards, and that is for each bot in your chain.

The other point is the elephant in the room: profitsMany people have an unrealistic view of what profits are.  Those who subscribe to the socialist and communistic economic theories also tend to think that those who seek profits are simply being greedy.  These people are simply showing their economic ignorance.

The farmer who grows the food that we eat everyday, do these farmers simply till the ground, invest in all that farming equipment and work those long hours simply because they want people who they’ll never meet to be able to have food on their plate, simply out of the goodness of his heart?  Or is it more likely that the farmer wants to get paid for all the effort that is put in?

This is just one example.  We can think of a myriad of others: the truckers who get that food from the fields to the market.  The bus drivers who take people all around town.  The teacher who teaches.  The programmers over at Wizards who make Magic Online.  While these people may love what they do, these people are also not all working out of the goodness of their hearts.  They want to be paid for their efforts.  Whether it is a wage, salary, or profits, it is compensation for work done.  As the famous axiom says, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

1 comment:

  1. Just found these tonight. Been busy arbitraging the market for almost 2 weeks now. Been having fun.

    However, I think that your depiction of the Communist and Socialist ecoonomic viewpoints is a bit simplistic. Its not so much that profits are bad, as much as profits are unnecessary in that the funds are cycled back into the socialist/communist system. However, on the global scale, when selling to those who don't prescribe to the beliefs, charging for profit is not only easily doable but almost a necessity to protect the market.

    :)


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