What is the difference between greed and ambition? If someone wants to work to become a billionaire by building a business and obeying laws, then that is very good. Once your greed causes you to break commit illegal acts then it is bad.
to become a billionaire for what?? for yourself? to help others? being a billionaire isn't a bad thing. staying a billionaire is a bad thing.
Ambition is wanting to do something badly, and working hard to acheive success. Greed is wanting to have a billion dollars to begin with. Nobody needs that kind of money, and that is as unlofty a goal as a person could have.
It's not forgotten, but our culture is fundamentally based on consumerism, and you can never have too much of that. Is capitalism and consumerism synonmous with "greed"? How do Christians, for example, reconcile their religious teachings with living in a society that basically preaches "greed is good", or at least doesn't preach against it (since you referred to it as a "sin")? Is greed unethical? Is it a part of human nature and, if so, why is it then considered a "sin"?
Maybe it's unlofty in a moral sense. But it's not evil. And it's not bad for the economy either, since billionaires often put their money into efficient savings and investments.
Sure it's evil. They often put their money into efficient savings and investments while thousands die of starvation daily.
It's complex. One could say that it is greed for higher profits at the expense of American jobs that is leading to outsourcing jobs in an area I've been to, India. Ask someone in Bangalore what those jobs mean, and they would reply, "Everything. It's a godsend." Keep D&D Civil.
Bill Gates has pledged to give 95% of his wealth to charitable causes (and is doing so), yet that would still leave him with a few billion. Is he evil?
Greed involves a selfish motive in the heart. Only God sees into the heart and knows the motives of man. (we can sometime tell by what comes out of the man, but it is not always clear)
Accomplishing a goal. If that goal was to make great computer parts, and you did that, and in the process became a billionaire, that is success. It is also different than having a billionaire be the goal rather than a by-product.
I don't think the problem is that a person has a billion dollars, but that they would make it a goal. If they wanted to produce a great product of sometime and in the process made a billion dollars, that isn't necessarily greed. If their goal was to make a billion dollars, then that is greed.
In Buddhism greed is a product of wrong perceptions. "Consequently, we continually perceive the world in terms of what will bring us pleasure and pain, in terms of what will gratify our own egos. We never see the world as it really is as long as we perceive things in this way. The Buddha's teachings try to put things in proper perspective. This I, ego, individual, is not the center of the universe but a part of it. This I, ego, individual is not permanent but changing. This I, ego, individual is subject to pain, suffering and death. The desire referred to by The Buddha is the desire that is based on a fundamental delusion: that this I, ego, individual is here forever and that what it wants can be possessed for ever. This is an illness, just like any addiction." http://buddhism.about.com/library/weekly/aa021403a.htm Why are topics like abortion and homosexuality etc. so important to Christians but greed seems to be pretty much accepted and in some cases even preached for?
