I awoke this morning thinking of the words of Milton Friedman talking about greed in an interview with Donahue many years ago. Mr. Friedman said, in effect, that greed is good. Greed is defined as "a selfish desire for more of something that is needed." I wonder this morning, since the basis of greed is selfishness, how it is that people (politicians, pundits, etc.) think they are able to gauge greed. Is it the lack of charitable giving that constitutes greed. How exactly does this greediness manifest itself?
If a person who makes $30,000 per year want to make $60,000 per year, is that greed? How about if the person who makes $10 million wants to make $20 million? Many would say the latter constitutes greed, but what if their motives are exactly the same? How do we measure greed? And in a day where socialism is vying for a larger share of the America's wealth bucket, who is to say where self-interest ends and wealth begins? The free market crowd would say that self-interest is what makes the market work. Mr. Friedman was fond of using the example of the self-interest of people all over the world working to provide for people they don't even know, or what Adam Smith called the invisible hand of the market. If I want to make a better life for my family and have a few things in this life, is that self-interest or greed? What if I want to grow my company and make better lives for the people who work for me, greed or self interest? What if my desire is to have so much money that I can start my own venture capital corp and bless other hungry entrepreneurs by funding their ideas and helping to make their dreams come true, self-interest or greed? Does anyone have a ruler, a measuring stick to define where the line is between the honest desire and the evil intent?
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Class One Week One: Changes in Thinking
When I began my quest for an MBA degree at George Fox University, naturally I was aware of the christian worldview of the school, and embraced it because i myself am a christian. One of the things that excited me about he program was that in addition to sound business principles it offered an opportunity to learn skills that integrated a love for people along side the prevalent corporate mindset of profits only.
In my undergraduate program I became enamored with economics and began to study the free market. The principles of how the free market works without interference excited me and I immersed myself in self study on the subject. While I enjoyed much about free market principles and how the market worked I could not help but have a nagging feeling in the depths of my heart that there is an element of life that is missing from these principles. The missing element is the relationships of people with each other and with God.
While I still enjoy and believe in the principles of the free market, reading in the book "Good Business" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi gave me a sense of the balance of business that I otherwise had difficultly obtaining. I realized this week that my hatred for political socilaism as the alternative to the free market stopped hindered me from thinking that there may be a middle ground, an area where people and profits can share consideration without either being relegated to secondary thought. This was a big realization to me and a huge step in opening my mind and life to new ways of thinking.
In addition, the GFU MBA program first week reading included the book "The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker, a book that flows with knowledge from one of the greatest business teachers of all time. One principle of note that Drucker spends considerable time outlining is the importance of time and time management as the primary need of an executive. Our week one project time study outlining how time is spent througout the work day gave clarity to his teaching in a way that mere reading could not have done. At the beginning of the book I thought to have my schedule fairly well tuned, however at the end of the time study became very aware of how much more effective my time could be used if only I had more control over my day.
In my undergraduate program I became enamored with economics and began to study the free market. The principles of how the free market works without interference excited me and I immersed myself in self study on the subject. While I enjoyed much about free market principles and how the market worked I could not help but have a nagging feeling in the depths of my heart that there is an element of life that is missing from these principles. The missing element is the relationships of people with each other and with God.
While I still enjoy and believe in the principles of the free market, reading in the book "Good Business" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi gave me a sense of the balance of business that I otherwise had difficultly obtaining. I realized this week that my hatred for political socilaism as the alternative to the free market stopped hindered me from thinking that there may be a middle ground, an area where people and profits can share consideration without either being relegated to secondary thought. This was a big realization to me and a huge step in opening my mind and life to new ways of thinking.
In addition, the GFU MBA program first week reading included the book "The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker, a book that flows with knowledge from one of the greatest business teachers of all time. One principle of note that Drucker spends considerable time outlining is the importance of time and time management as the primary need of an executive. Our week one project time study outlining how time is spent througout the work day gave clarity to his teaching in a way that mere reading could not have done. At the beginning of the book I thought to have my schedule fairly well tuned, however at the end of the time study became very aware of how much more effective my time could be used if only I had more control over my day.
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