Wikipedia does a decent job of discussing greed. It’s difficult to define because it’s not an absolute. For example, with murder, a person is dead or not dead. But greed isn’t black and white; it’s a matter of degrees.
Wikipedia says “Some desire to increase one’s wealth is nearly universal and acceptable in any culture, but this simple want is not considered greed. Greed is the extreme form of this desire, especially where one desires things simply for the sake of owning them (such as the desire to have great amounts of money not to purchase objects, but possession or the money is an end in itself). Greed typically entails acquiring material possessions at the expense of other person’s welfare (for example, a father buying himself a new car rather than fix the roof of his family’s home) or otherwise reflect priorities.
“Essential to the concept of greed is the awareness that the needs of others are denied…” Envy is a type of greed.

I think Wikipedia captures the commonly understood definition of greed. The amount of money someone earns has nothing to do with greed. Poor people can be greedy through envy. Obama’s definition is a private one, which is dishonest, and a common trait of socialists along with envy. It’s virtually impossible to discuss anything with socialists because they have private definitions for all important concepts. They define the terms of every argument in such a way that only they win.

Using the commonly understood definition, is a hedge fund manager greedy simply because he earns a high salary? Not any more than a politician or doctor who earns millions a year.

If I had to guess at Obama’s definition of greed from her usage, I would have to say that anyone Obama dislikes is greedy.

Your statement gave me an amusing sound bite…

The “helping” professions help the individual at the expense of society; and the “money grubbing” professions help society at the expense of the individual.

Not entirely acurate, but amusing none the less.

In the first place, someone who decides to work in a hedge fund may, or may not be greedy. It’s wrong to claim to have the power to determine everyone’s motives. Only God has that power. And someone who goes into health care or teaching may not have pure motives; it could be the only job they could get.

Second, every job contributes to society. Hedge fund managers contribute just as much as politicians, school teachers and nurses. No one can claim that one profession is more noble or helps society more than does another. But if I had to choose one, I would say that businesses help society more than any other group because they provide the wages that support families, pay taxes, and give to charity. Without jobs, politicians, teachers and nurses would have no income at all.

If you have the same broker, he could possibly backdate trades for the day on a daily basis, giving one client the profits and the other the losses. Her broker just happened to be broker for Tyson clients as well, his name was Red Bone … and guess what? That same Red Bone had his hands slapped for back-dating trades …
“Red Bone, the broker of record for both Mr. Blair and Mrs. Clinton, was suspended from trading for a year, even before he left Tyson Foods to run the Refco brokerage office in Springdale, Arkansas, for trying to corner the egg-futures market. In 1979, Red was disciplined by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for “serious and repeated violations of record-keeping functions, order-entry procedures, margin requirements, and hedge procedures.” Refco was fined $250,000, at the time the largest fine ever levied for commodity-trading violations.”

Who was Hillary’s advisor in these trades? James Blair, tyson legal counsel: “Blair may also have been balancing an item in his own account. In the early months of the Carter Administration, Bill Clinton coordinated federal patronage in Arkansas, and one of his first moves in this area was to recommend Blair for the chairmanship of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.”

Hillary turned $1,000 into $5,000 in her first trade and into $100,000 within 8 months. Either she was the most incredible commodities trader ever, who happened to walk away from her true calling, or it was a trading subterfuge used to funnel Tyson money to the Clintons as a political patronage quid pro quo.

What are the odds?
source:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n3_v47/ai_16709018/print

“i get by with a little help from my friends”

“i get by with a little help from my friends”

I will tackle the easier of the groups: Hedgefund Managers: These folks penalize failure and emphasize success. They amplify risk normally in the hands of owners and/or properly place risk in the hands of owners and managers who are actively trying to avoid it. They are the only group able to quickly and efficiently punish poor management. If you are unhappy about hedge fund managers being bailed out then take your issue up those doing the bail outs: the Federal Anti-Reserve or the Congress and stop bothering the legitimate, moral and important members of goods, equities and financial markets.

The more difficult group to justify their existence is that of lawyers in that unlike hedge funds, they or other lawyers create the opportunities for money stealing themselves. But, people hate lawyers until they need them. Even the ambulance chasing scum suckers have a legitimate purpose of representating (in theory) people with legitimate injuries. Again is it the lawyers or the structure of the systems, criminal justice and civil justice, that are at fault? Again, if the law that lawyers use is irrational then go see the US Congress and/or the state legislatures and stop bothering those trying to represent people who believe they have been wronged.

i’m not following the point of the cavils raised here … are you saying that if you follow the big paycheck (personally greedy) that you’re a good capitalist, but if you care about helping others (not making money) that you’re a socialist?