Yeah, I mean, you really, really don't need that much money. You could never spend it all, and I'm pretty sure you could allow more than 20 generations of your family prosper and live multi-millionaire lifestyles with that sort of money.

Call me jealous because I don't have that sort of money, but I think if all these rich dudes banded together and handed off a lot of their personal wealth to countries that could use that sort of money, then they could at least sleep well that night, knowing that they've actually done some good by helping out people.

I'm not talking 1 or 2 million, I'm pretty sure a billionaire could use that as toilet paper. I'm saying maybe hand out half of their personal wealth to undeveloped nations.

Though, there's also the problem that the money wouldn't get spent well by the third world leaders, and they'd just make it their own personal weath.

All I know is that I personally couldn't live with having a billion in my bank account while I know others that struggle their whole lives just tying to provide their family with the basics, as the bank does nothing but keep on their back because they're barely able to afford to keep a roof over their head. It's horrible to think about. I just wish that I could have that sort of money so I could see it better the lives of others.

Hell, even five million dollars would be far too much for me.

[edit on 16-10-2009 by Whine Flu]

Removing blunt capitalism would save the world.

But then again, blunt capitalism is in essence Greed or easily leads to greed so..

[edit on 16/10/09 by Dermo]

I'm thinking it would be a very bad idea to remove such a gene, if it exists. We got our genes over millions (maybe even billions) of years of evolution. Somehow it was something that enabled us to survive. Now it interferes with how we get along in society, which is a bad thing. But... society hasn't existed for very long. I wouldn't assume that our present version of society is the best we could ever do, or that it won't change over the next few thousand years. Maybe society will even break down completely, and we'd need that greed gene to survive again.

We've got lots of genetic traits that make it difficult to live in society. We get angry - our bodies are geared to fight or run, our hearts beat faster, our muscles tighten, etc. We no longer have to fight or flee some wild animals (most of the time). It's usually just some jerk who annoys us, but we still gear up like it's a fight to the death.

You wouldn't necessarily want to remove the "fight-or-flight" instinct or gene. Society isn't perfect. Sometimes we might encounter a violent or sociopathic person who is a genuine threat to life. We need to be able to run for it or put up a fight. Also, there have been times when society has broken down. It's not that solid, yet. If it breaks down, even just temporarily, then we're back to the law of the jungle and old instincts could make all the difference.

Same with the "greed gene". Let's not get rid of it until we're sure this society thing is going to work out. We've had "society" for only a few thousand years. That's nothing, compared to the millions of years of evolution that we've also been through. Don't throw away millions of years of evolution without a whole lot of thought and care.

As for greed itself, I saw somewhere an interesting idea, a "maximum wage". Just as there is a minimum wage for workers, how about a maximum wage? Make it very high, so people could get rich, but limit it, so that they don't just hog up all the money. Not sure if it would work, or whether it would cause more problems than it solved. I'm not an economist. But it is an intriguing thought...

This is very shaky moral grounds your suggestion walks on. Genes are one side of the coin, surroundings is the other. Not all people (gladly - by far not all people) who have genes responsible for excessive violence would kill other people. Because there is family,education,society, environment and numerous other factors that are working here. So while i agree that greed in general is a huge problem and modern society can function perfectly well without it - solving it by "removing" people with "greed gene" -and i do not know if it exists at all by the way - will make much more harm then good.
Education,education and education. People should understand what it does on personal level, idiocy with rich "winners" vs poor "losers" should be stopped.
But replacing God and deciding who is to be removed from Humanity because he has some gene - sorry count me out.

To be honest, I think that the "greed gene" that the OP mentioned is more metaphorical than scientifically based.

We have to distinguish greed from ambition. Ambition is good for the world. Ambitious people do grandiose things like producing artistic masterpieces and making groundbreaking scientific discoveries. Ambition can save the world, it is productive. A lack of ambition can doom the world.

Then their is greed which is ambition's closely related cousin. Greedy people sometimes do grandiose things, but they will often do destructive things. Greed, of course, is a source of many of the world's problems.

The problem with greed is that it is often difficult to distinguish it from ambition. How can we remove greed from human nature or society without eliminating ambition?

Originally posted by Whine Flu
To be honest, I think that the "greed gene" that the OP mentioned is more metaphorical than scientifically based.

Phew, someone got it!

I was thinking I was going to get blasted again like a few other threads I've put in Skunk Works!

"You want to genetically engineer man to not be greedy!! Are you insane!??"

thanks mate!

No probs. It's a good thread that should be read by many more people. I think it's important that something like this actually gets mentioned.

Besides, you'd think that people would've gotten what you meant once they read your post.