Greed, Communes vs Private

Many socialists and big government advocates claim greed is bad.  Greed is defined as a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed.  

The advocates of big government want to control the greed of capitalists.   They do not want to control their own greed or the greed of the lower classes, all of who have more than is needed to survive.   A poor person on welfare and living in public housing has more than she needs to survive.

The lure of social and communal living is that one can be greedy and not seem like they are.   If a group of 100 people set up a commune to share their production, the lure of each person is that they will get to share the production of the other 99 people.   They expect to get more out of the 99 other people than one person, their self, can put in.    These people are all greedy.

The difference in greed in a free market capitalist society is many people benefit from greed.   The great inventors and business creators in a free society were greedy in creating because they knew they could keep what they produced, so society benefited from this because competition made the goods cheaper for the consumer.   Not so in a commune where production from the greed of one member must be shared equally with all the other members.   There is very little reward for innovation in a commune.   This is why free market capitalism societies have always prospered and improved society's standard of living more than communes,  which have a history of failing.

"Leftists, in their heart of hearts, hate capitalism more than they fear the total state. They can put up with anything so long as people are not free to make as much money as they want in the service of others. The resulting inequality in wealth distribution in this system, and the manner in which the free society raises up a class of natural aristocrats, is morally intolerable to them. They prefer to risk the creation of the totalitarian society rather than put their core hatreds on the back burner. "  Lew Rockwell              

Despite the history of thousands of tribal communes that failed, people still long for the feel good cocoon of a group.   Tyrants exploit this desire for a safe place where one can feel like a part of a community.    Those longing for a secure and happy place usually end up oppressed.

Charles Tolleson