Greed Is Bad, Neutral, and Good: A Historical Perspective on Excessive Accumulation and Consumption

Abstract

Any investigation into the topics of greed and excess is necessarily hampered by the inability to frame and define these concepts for general application to human behaviors. These terms carry significant moral, social, political, and cultural weight, primarily used either as accusations of sin, vice, and social destruction or justified for their virtues, rewards, and social good. In trying to understand the social and economic underpinnings of the behaviors we may term as greedy and excessive, we recognize the need for also exploring why these topics have almost universally been addressed in religions, philosophies, and social rules across the world, whether in sanction and condemnation, or in tolerance or even encouragement. This article investigates the ways in which major philosophical traditions across the world have viewed greed and excess, their impacts on society, and how the meanings and connotations of these terms have changed through time, since the Bronze Age to the present. We suggest that these terms and behaviors are temporally and culturally dependent, and that any investigation into the larger topic of greed and excess must begin with understanding and accommodating the variation in their meaning and social impacts.

Greed: What Is It Good for?

“…A returning question in the literature on greed is whether greed is good or bad ( Oka & Kuijt, 2014 ; Verburg, 2012 ; Zeelenberg & Breugelmans, 2022 ). The case for greed being bad is most frequently encountered: Greed is excessive, wasteful, resulting in accumulation beyond what is needed, and often harmful to other people ( Balot, 2001 ; Gilliland & Anderson, 2011 ; Helzer & Rosenzweig, 2020 ; Lambie & Stickl Haugen, 2019 ).…”

Does dispositional greed predispose employees to hide knowledge?

“…First, as dispositional greed was indirectly associated with increased knowledge hiding via PLOKP but not directly associated with it, it might be premature to suggest that human resources (HR) managers should screen out job applicants who are disposed to greediness during the recruitment process. This is even as previous research confirms that greed is a double-edged sword capable of having opposing effects on a given outcome (Zhu et al, 2019; for comprehensive reviews, see Bruhn and Lowrey, 2012;Oka and Kuijt, 2014;Zeelenberg and Breugelmans, 2022). Therefore, organizations should weigh the pros and cons of having greedy employees and strike a balance between them.…”

“…Contrary to expectation, it was found that none of the direct relationships between dispositional greed and the three dimensions of knowledge hiding was significant. These findings may reflect greed as a double-edged sword that can be both good and bad (for comprehensive reviews, see Bruhn and Lowrey, 2012; Oka and Kuijt, 2014; Zeelenberg and Breugelmans, 2022). As knowledge hiding is an insidious behavior that can have deleterious consequences for stakeholders (Connelly et al , 2012; Serenko and Bontis, 2016), the good aspect of greed seems to suggest that being greedy may not necessarily lead to a deleterious outcome such as knowledge hiding.…”

“…It can be viewed from negative and positive perspectives. On the negative stance, it is abhorred in all major religions (Tickle, 2004; Oka and Kuijt, 2014), historically perceived in the negative (Haynes et al , 2015) and blamed in principle for most fraudulent behavior in organizations (Brummer, 2014; Burke, 2009). Indeed, some empirical studies favor the negative perspective by showing that greedy people are willing to accept a bribe (Tanner et al , 2022), behave more unethically (Seuntjens et al , 2019) and are more corrupt (Li et al , 2021).…”

“…For the positive aspect, greed is believed to propel economic development and prosperity (Greenfeld, 2003). If people maximize their self-interests and are never satisfied with what they currently possess, they will eventually engage in activities that will bring spillover benefits to society at large (Oka and Kuijt, 2014). Also, greed may be of immense value in some organizations and societies (Bruhn and Lowrey, 2012).…”