Is GREED a better motive to lifting people out of poverty than COMPASSION?
 

I use the term "GREED" here for dramatic effect (surprise! It's GFY! :1orglaugh) The term SELF-INTEREST will probably be just as effective.

Anyway, do you think SELF-INTEREST as expressed by MARKETS and EXCHANGE does a better job of lifting people out of chronic poverty than COMPASSION?

Check this out: http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/165

and check this out: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/185

Another thing to think about: BILLIONS have been poured into global anti-poverty programs with (in general) dismal results.

Greed is the best motive for getting anyone to do anything. People will always think of themselves first and others second, its programmed into their genes. So yeah, greed is a good motivator.

First there has to be compassion enough to even dream what Gabre-Madhin is proposing. If all you've ever known is poverty, I doubt you can dream for the future. In the US we have set ppl up to fail, with our 3 generations of welfare handouts.

Too bad we don't have a man in office like FDR, who had the vision and compassion to know, that it was jobs, not charity that could change poverty.

Absolutely.... capitalism thrives on self-interest and greed. All it takes is determination, a little vision, and a little luck.

the problem with poverty and any solution is the irrational disconnect of empathy and compassion and simple reason and logic. we're not all equal. we're not all equally capable. we're not all equally intelligent and poor people aren't poor because they are "disadvantaged".

action is more important than motive. my $0.02 -bmb

I don't think most people living in poverty understands what is needed to stay out of poverty should they get the chance.

There are a few that get out, most don't or ever will. And if they ever do, they will return.

I agree 1000%. Intention/planning can only go so far, the world rewards action.

Immanuel Kant would not be proud of you... shame on you :upsidedow

Kant defined the good deed many years ago and the text book example goes as follow:

a man who gives a dollar he can't effort give away simple because he feel it's his duty is better than a millionaire giving a million away to make him feel better with himself.

The result of the man giving a million away is far better than the poor man who gives a dollar but tat does not make the deed any better :winkwink:


The good deed comes out of the feeling of obligation, not from pleasing yourself.

This is so beautiful and perfectly true, but that doesn't mean that the result of a bad deed can be much better than the result of a good one.

This may be a bit off topic but I just enjoy Kant and thought I would share hehe

Gordon Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.

Unfortunately that about sums it up :disgust

As much as people don't want to admit it, every thing they do is self motivated.

yes and I might help someone I dislike.

The only anti-poverty programs that really solve the problem are organizations like the Crimean Bank, where they simply provide working capital for the ultra-poor so they can start a farm or some sort of business, again feeding their own greed and self interest.

But yea, just giving people something for nothing really just teaches them how to be beggars.

Kant was pretty hardcore. Didn't he argue about ABSOLUTE ideals?

So Paris Hilton is richer than you because she busted ass and worked real hard and is just smarter than you; because, after all, she had no advantages.