Is the herd mentality & greedy behaviors, of *,based on short-term, selfish goals ruining society &the planet?

Question

This is the fully-worded Q: Is the herd mentality & greed-driven behaviors, of *, ie producers,consumers & middlemen, based on short-term, selfish goals ruining society & the planet? I asked this Q bec of the Best Answer to another of my Q's. See--->http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080327094944AAmEKjM&r=wEJFyD3bpPmOeos7BmMCx6UR2BxkYftyrChK1pfQgQlbY704zJRTF_LifFg--&paid=delete_comment#openions

Bec of it ,I just had to ask this more theoretical Q separately. It ties economics,the concern for the environment and GW into one packaged Q! Given the mean-spirited politics so evident in the GW category I have chosen to post it here! GW is not an isolated issue as some would like it to be. It is much more than just "a science issue."

Answer 1

No, we've accidentally fallen into the postion of destroying the planet through the simple process of going about our lives.  It's nothing as deliberate and sinister (and judgmental) as greed.

"Our results confirm the well-known fact of global climate change: to meet temperature or concentration goals requires concerted efforts from much of the world over a substantial period of time. With rapid growth in developing countries, failure to control their emissions could lead to a substantial increase in global temperature even if the U.S. and other developed countries pursue stringent policies.

It is useful to evaluate the global costs and global benefits of achieving such targets, as difficult as that is to do. However, it is not possible to connect specific U.S. policy targets with a particular global concentration or temperature target, and therefore the avoided damages, because any climate gains depend on efforts in the rest of the world. And unfortunately, absent a global agreement a country’s best strategy in terms of its own self-interest is to do little and freeride on the actions of others. Of course, if all behave in this way very little mitigation will be achieved. If a cooperative solution is at all possible, therefore, a major strategic consideration in setting U.S. policy targets should be their value in leading other major countries to take on similar efforts."

http://web.mit.edu/globalchange/www/MITJ...

Self interest will encourage countries and people not to participate in the solution.  It is imperative therefore for all countries and people to be involved in the solution, or they will use each other as excuses not to participate.  In other words, we need to drive the whole herd towards healthier actions, choices and lifestyles.

Answer 2

Greed and selfishness spur innovation.  They represent the best virtues of mankind.  Efforts taken to eliminate or suppress these motives will result in the total collapse of society and outright lawlessness.  

The unwillingness to think for one's self will always be a danger to the individual, "society", and possibly the planet itself.

Edit: Hmmm....you might want to try "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Being a family man myself, I find a case study of the Breen family (of Donner Party fame) enlightening as well (all 9 members of their family, including the children, survived).

Answer 3

greed is good, trees grow back,  buying puts people to work,  watching grass grow make people starve.

You figure it out.

Answer 4

Welcome to the free market. Greed is what drives the free market. I believe the answer to your question is yes! People are "trying to get theirs." But, not everyone is this way. Some do understand that greed is bad and that there are long-term consequences.

Answer 5

Over time the right wing has come to mistake the principle of positive self-interest to be synonymous with abject selfish greed. As a result they protect and defend all this in the name of some sort of healthy conservative value (amazingly, often married to Christianity as a smokescreen for their fuzzy ethics). Americans are so used to being lied to day in and day out on commercials and advertisements that we are less than outraged about scandals like Enron or the Iraq war. We simply expect that people with massive amounts of power and money are corrupt, because that is the best method to acquire massive amounts of power and money.

Answer 6

We're in a situation where half the people on the planet don't have a decent water supply, and more than half don't get enough to eat.  This is a situation that has developed, isn't likely to be fixed, and is almost certain to get worse, because the people in developed countries refuse to consider changing their lifestyle.  Yeah, I'd say there is a moral issue.

Answer 7

no, religions around the world have tried to suppress greed in order to for their leaders to keep most of the wealth themselves.

Greed is an evolved behavior that has helped us survive. It occurs in every species. For proof feed two dogs with one bowl of food and see what happens.

Greed is a good thing as long as it is not a motivator for physical or financial damage such as murder, assault, theft, or fraud. Greed when used as a motivator in competition regulated by rules that protect individuals from fraud, theft, and assault spurs innovation, development, and improvement to existing systems.

Most sports are enjoyed under the basis of greed. Everyone wants to win, but there can only be one champion. This has been seen in humans and animals since the beginning of time. Only the strong survive, and humans have the best ability to think. Our species has overcome many obstacles and will continue to do so up until we find one that we can't overcome. (Such as a meteor collision with earth, which is something that humans presently do not have an answer for.)

This whole GW b.s. is religious in nature because it relies on the human's weakness to believe in irrational solutions for problems that they have no control over. Let humans have their freedom to choose for themselves. When we become extinct then we will be gone. Who cares about something so infantile as the here and now and the not to distant future?

I myself will rely on greed and the greed of others to overcome our obstacles. Including the anti-human environmentalists.

Answer 8

answering your core question-- the herd mentality and greedy behaviors is certainly nothing new, it is generally the common practice of all civilizations since the dawn of written or documentable history. We aren't doing anything new, though with our helpful tools like electricity and motors we are able to step up the process quite a few notches.  So I don't think you can say this behavior is ruining the planet, as if it is something new. Humans have been working at it for thousands of years!  Look at all the species that were sent to extinction over the past 500 years of world exploration and exploytation. Humans have just gotten better at destroying everything.

Answer 9

No the future of society and the planet is nearing extinction because the blindmen are leading blindmen!