The 'Greed' Fallacy
RealClearPolitics
By Thomas Sowell
"In an era when our media and even our education system exalt emotions, while ignoring facts and logic, perhaps we should not be surprised that so many people explain economics by 'greed.'
Today there are adults -- including educated adults -- who explain multimillion-dollar corporate executives' salaries as being due to 'greed.'
Think about it: I could become so greedy that I wanted a fortune twice the size of Bill Gates' -- but this greed would not increase my income by one cent.
If you want to explain why some people have astronomical incomes, it cannot be simply because of their own desires -- whether 'greedy' or not -- but because of what other people are willing to pay them.
The real question, then, is: Why do other people choose to pay corporate executives so much?"
By Thomas Sowell
"In an era when our media and even our education system exalt emotions, while ignoring facts and logic, perhaps we should not be surprised that so many people explain economics by 'greed.'
Today there are adults -- including educated adults -- who explain multimillion-dollar corporate executives' salaries as being due to 'greed.'
Think about it: I could become so greedy that I wanted a fortune twice the size of Bill Gates' -- but this greed would not increase my income by one cent.
If you want to explain why some people have astronomical incomes, it cannot be simply because of their own desires -- whether 'greedy' or not -- but because of what other people are willing to pay them.
The real question, then, is: Why do other people choose to pay corporate executives so much?"
posted by HeavyHanded at
5:09 PM
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