Connect! Unite! Act! When does profit become avarice?

Connect! Unite! Act! is a weekly series encouraging the creation of face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups meet to socialize, support candidates, get out the vote, and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert maximum influence on the powers that be. Visit us every week to see how you can get involved!

Money. We all want some, we all need at least some, and while money won’t buy you happiness, being destitute can certainly cause you great sorrow. You can lose your family, your living conditions, your health, and opportunities. Our culture loves money. Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy said: “This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”

At what point, though, does having money stop being about trying to get by or even setting up a better future for your progeny and start becoming about sheer avarice? “Avarice” is a term you don’t see used often very much anymore; it refers to extreme greed. Yet extreme greed has become the driving force behind too many decisions in our country. How do we address this from a morals and values position?