'What!' said the master at length, in a faint voice.

'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more.'

Over simplification? ? ? Perhaps, but I believe it’s really just that simple.... Whether your name is Oliver Twist, or Oliver Barrett III (the rich son in the movie ‘Love Story’), you want more. This is true if you live in the London’s Brixton ghetto, the Barrio in New York or East LA, or along the railroad tracks leading into Mumbai or some not-so-nice neighborhoods in Chongqing, or Shanghai. This is also true if you live on Park Avenue in New York, or Hillsborough Hills, California, or the French Concession area of Shanghai.

How many ways do I have to say it ? We ALL want more... It’s in our DNA.

Also, don’t confuse ‘more’ with always meaning ‘money’..... While money is certainly a big part of the equation, sometimes prestige, influence, and/or power (things that money ‘can’ buy) are bigger factors. Sometimes we seek respect - it’s certainly arguable if money can actually buy this or not.... Yet, no matter what language, or how it’s translated, we all want to get ‘ahead’.... We all have ‘greed’ within us.

If we didn’t want to get ahead, there would be no gambling - farewell Las Vegas. No stock markets - do I really expect or care if company X is going to sell more widgets in the future? I wouldn’t be looking for a better job - along with about 6.5 billion other people, and I certainly wouldn’t need a bank to keep my money safe. In short, if we didn’t want to ‘get ahead’, we would all still be living in caves, cowering from our predators and wondering about the movement of the sun, moon and the stars in the night sky.
Sometimes getting ahead just means getting a minimum wage job. Sometimes it means getting a million dollar bonus, and sometimes it means pooling the resources of an entire village to send one of their smartest youngsters to medical school, so that they will return home and provide much needed medical care for those villagers. So let us not forget that there are certainly differing degrees of greed. Yet again, we all have some form of greed within us.

At no time in this dissertation have I said that greed was ‘bad’.... Au Contraire, mon ami.
Greed is in fact a major driver of social advancement, and has greatly contributed to the advancement of mankind as a whole. But my father used to say that extremism in anything is bad, and that moderation in nearly everything was acceptable.
So while I admit to being somewhat ‘greedy,’ I also work hard to limit my greed to acceptable norms. I don’t have to have more money than Bill Gates, or Warren Buffett, nor do I want the power of a Barrack Obama or Hu Jingtao. Some clean air to breathe and clean water to drink would be nice though.....


Next up, lets go back and add a few more Economics 101 items.