Greed is a vice that we often hear mentioned, but never defined. More than anything it seems to be a generalized accusation against U.S. society, calculated to make Americans above a certain income feel bad about themselves. The leftist economists, academics, legislators, and commentators who are so ready to impute this moral dereliction to their fellow countrymen rarely name names. As a result, rarely is any defense offered against the charge of “greed.”
What is greed, and when is someone guilty of it? St. Thomas Aquinas does not mention it, and, unlike gluttony or covetousness, it is not among the seven deadly sins. I have asked a number of Catholics what would elicit from them the subsequent confession of greed, but I have received no clear guidance. The word itself, according to dictionaries, is a back-formation from “greedy,” which as often as not seems to mean gluttonous.
Comments