Daniel Wilmoth

In his 1987 movie Wall Street, Oliver Stone tells the story of Gordon Gekko, a stock speculator who will do anything to win. He lies to partners, spies on competitors, and trades on inside information. Gekko defends his greed in a speech inspired by a real speculator of the era, Ivan Boesky.

…Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works…. Greed, in all of its forms…has marked the upward surge of mankind….

The claim that greed “has marked the upward surge of mankind” finds some support in the work of the pioneering economist Adam Smith. Recent centuries have seen a blossoming of technology. Smith describes how these advances depend on the specialization that markets create.

The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour…. As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the extent of this division must always be limited by the extent of that power, or, in other words, by the extent of the market.¹

The role of markets in advancing technology provides some support for claims about the benefits of greed because we generally trade for profit. Smith writes,

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.²

However, thriving markets require more than a desire for profit; thriving markets require trust. When we trade with the public, we face risks like theft and fraud. While we may not rely on the benevolence of the baker for our bread, charity is not the only alternative to trade. Another alternative is predation, and greed undermines trust by encouraging predation.

The book of Proverbs offers an account of prosperity in tension with that of Gekko. Proverbs provides general guidance for navigating life. The path to prosperity it describes runs not through greed, but through love for God and other people.

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man. (Proverbs 3:3 – 4 ESV)

The attitudes described in Proverbs encourage trade by discouraging predation. If we love God and love other people, we will treat others fairly.

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord,
but a just weight is his delight. (Proverbs 11:1 ESV)

Although Smith describes the role of self interest in trade, he also warns about the danger to markets from greed. In markets that function well, sellers compete with each other, driving down prices. Smith warns that sellers may try to increase profits by colluding to control prices. Smith also describes the need for trust between trading partners.

Commerce and manufactures can seldom flourish long in any state which does not enjoy a regular administration of justice, in which the people do not feel themselves secure in the possession of their property, in which the faith of contracts is not supported by law, and in which the authority of the state is not supposed to be regularly employed in enforcing the payment of debts from all those who are able to pay.³

Although Smith focuses on the role of the state, the law is a limited tool for achieving trust. Law enforcement is costly, and the law cannot address every possible situation. While the law is valuable, a fuller cooperation can be achieved more cheaply though the attitudes described in Proverbs.

Greed motives some to choose predation, but predation is not always profitable. Although thieves usually pay the lowest price, sometimes they pay the highest. Proverbs describes the sudden destruction that may befall those “greedy for unjust gain.”

My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us ambush the innocent without reason…
we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder….”
my son, do not walk in the way with them;
hold back your foot from their paths….
For in vain is a net spread
in the sight of any bird,
but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
they set an ambush for their own lives.
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors. (Proverbs 1:10 – 19 ESV)

The passage from Proverbs describes robbery, but sudden destruction is not reserved for those who serve their greed through violence. The speech praising greed by Gekko was inspired by a commencement speech Boesky gave at a prestigious business school. Not long after giving that speech, Boesky pleaded guilty to violating securities laws. He was fined $100 million and sentenced to over 3 years in prison.

In Wall Street, Gordon Gekko claims that greed has “marked the upward surge of mankind.” Mankind has seen tremendous technological progress in recent centuries. That progress relied on the specialization that markets create, and we participate in markets for profit. However, markets require trust to thrive, and greed can undermine that trust. Although the upward surge of mankind followed the pull of profit, it was also marked by integrity and good will.

1. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (Amherst, New York: Prometheus, 1991), 20.
2. Smith, Wealth of Nations, 9 – 24.
3. Smith, Wealth of Nations, 578.

Dishonest money dwindles away,
but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.

Proverbs 13:11 NIV

The Bible describes a covenant between God and the people of Israel. After Moses leads Israel out of captivity, the people agree to obey God, and God promises to bless the people. It is from this covenant, or testament, that the name of the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, derives.

Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord…said, “This is what you are to…tell the people of Israel: ‘…if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession….’”

So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” (Exodus 19:3 – 8 NIV)

In return for keeping the Mosaic Law, Israel is promised prosperity, victory in battle, and honor among the nations. In return for breaking the Mosaic Law, Israel is promised severe punishment.

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed…because of the evil you have done in forsaking him…. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron…. Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. (Deuteronomy 28:20 – 48 NIV)

The Mosaic Law imposes hundreds of restrictions. The most famous commandments prohibit behavior that obviously harms others, like theft and murder. However, the Mosaic Law also includes instructions for diet, hygiene, economic organization, and even a requirement for rest.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…. (Exodus 20:8-10 ESV)

The Mosaic Covenant seems to impose a heavy burden in exchange for a blessing from God. However, compliance with the Mosaic Law is not just a burden. All of the Mosaic Law, not just the requirement to keep a Sabbath, is also about rest. At the core of the Mosaic Law is the reformation of our desires. Our instinctual desires are boundless, and only by reforming our desires can we escape perpetual labor in their service. Continue reading “Burden and rest”

When there is no desire,
all things are at peace.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 37

In the book of Exodus, God commands Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. They flee into the desert, where they camp near Mount Sinai. God descends on the trembling mountain in fire, covering it in billowing smoke. God summons Moses, and on Mount Sinai God gives him the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments include basic instructions for handling other people. Murder, adultery, theft, and false witness are prohibited. The social theorist René Girard points out that the final commandment differs from those that precede it in addressing not our actions but our desires.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17 NIV)

Girard argues that the tenth commandment addresses an aspect of our desire that generates the behaviors prohibited in the commandments that precede it. We want what we see our neighbors having or even what we see our neighbors wanting. Such “mimetic” desire creates competition and conflict.

If the Decalogue devotes its final commandment to prohibiting desire for whatever belongs to the neighbor, it is because it lucidly recognizes in that desire the key to the violence prohibited in the four commandments that precede it. If we ceased to desire the goods of our neighbor, we would never commit murder or adultery or theft or false witness. If we respected the tenth commandment, the four commandments that precede it would be superfluous.¹

Girard errs in claiming that the wrongs addressed in the Ten Commandments are always caused by mimetic desire. Mimetic desire can cause us to harm others, but not all harmful desire is mimetic. When Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment, he explains that all of the commandments, including the one against coveting, depend on two more general commandments about attitude.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37 – 40 ESV)

However, mimetic desire does shape our attitudes. In designating two commandments addressing attitude as the greatest commandments, Jesus prioritizes nurturing proper attitudes. The Bible describes several spiritual disciplines through which attitudes can be reformed, including prayer, ritual, and meditation. If our desires can reflect what we see in others as Girard describes, then we can also improve our attitudes by choosing who we see. Socializing can also be a spiritual discipline.

Continue reading “Meeting together”

Someone who associates regularly with certain people, for conversation, or for parties, or simply for the sake of sociability, is bound either to come to resemble them or else to convert them….  Since the risk is thus so great, we should be cautious in entering into such relations…, remembering that it is impossible to rub up against someone covered with soot without getting sooty oneself.

Epictetus, Discourses

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus visits the temple in Jerusalem with his disciples. In an open area of the temple are receptacles for donations. He sees rich people put in large amounts. He also sees a poor widow donate two lepta, the smallest coins in circulation. He tells his disciples,

Truly…this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on. (Mark 12:43 – 44 NIV)

We find such charity by the poor praised in the Bible. For example, Paul writes,

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.  In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.  For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. (2 Corinthians 8:1 – 3 NIV)

Charity by the poor is confusing. We expect the poor to receive rather than to give charity. Why should those who need money give away what little they have? Surely whatever can be accomplished with their meager donations can be accomplished with less sacrifice by others. Continue reading “Charity by the poor”

Never say about anything, “I’ve lost it,” but rather, “I’ve given it back.”

Epictetus, Handbook

In her popular book The Secret, Rhonda Byrne claims that we can get whatever we want using the “law of attraction.” Byrne writes that what we think about, we attract. To obtain anything, we need only focus on what we want.

It is the law that determines the complete order in the Universe, every moment of your life, and every single thing you experience in your life. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, the law of attraction is forming your entire life experience, and this all-powerful law is doing that through your thoughts.¹

Byrne claims the law of attraction has been recognized by many religions, including Christianity. She elaborates a process for using the law of attraction that includes three steps: ask, believe, and receive. She quotes Jesus discussing those aspects of prayer.

Despite the parallel between the process Byrne provides and Christian prayer, The Secret and the Bible relate to our desires in radically different ways. The Secret focuses on conforming the universe to our will. In the Bible, we are taught that our instinctual desires can mislead us. The Bible focuses not on conforming the universe to our will, but on conforming our will to the will of God. Continue reading “The power of prayer”

The natural state of all possessions is to need repair and maintenance.  What you own will eventually own you.

Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living