Why are humans so greedy?

[Anonymous]

In many countries theft very frequently scores number 1 on this list of “most common crimes.”

Updates

3 mo

Fraud is a type of theft

[lightbulb27]

Fear... of death and suffering. Pride.

It's the fall of mankind... the negative emotions that rule so many. It's instituted into our systems.

The biggest thief are the govts... like USA inflating around 8-10% a year. you think you are staying ahead and getting rich when you are becomming poor unless your investing skills and income are exceptional. This is a reason rich people keep investing...

It's easy to lose all your wealth in this system and falling down from higher level is more painful than falling from a low level on a ladder. Recall stock market crashes were some people lost it all... and jumped out of windows. the emotional pain of if all resulted in death.

In general, people don't like to change and sometimes cannot handle the change well.

[Anonymous]

Greed is part of human nature and most people can be greedy to some extent. Personal insecurities, low self-esteem, and a desire for control is the reason.

[FreyaRed]

The fish starts to stink from the head. What means elites are corrupt and their pathological behavior encourages others to scam and to steal.
That's why you have two types of societies. One where you can put an soda automate somewhere in the woods without cameras and protection people won't damage or steal money from it. While in some societies this soda automate need to be protected with cages, steel and armored glass.

[MontBlanc]

Greed often comes from fear and insecurity.

Humans want more more money, status, or possessions because it feels like security or validation. Evolutionarily, scarcity conditioned us to compete and hoard resources.

The difference is awareness: some channel desire into growth or generosity, while others let it consume them. Greed isn’t inevitable; it’s a choice how you act on it.

[ohsheeT]

Everyone knows what about to happen. And we watch our President and our leaders in politics doing it each and every day. So, it's like if they can do it, people are thinking, I guess they can do it, it's totally wrong. But we haven't seen nothing yet. Because when the secret societies start pulling all there crap. Well, we will know about it. First of all, because they will try to divide us all, and make us this like each other. And this is when we have to become one but when secret society does their c*** , there takeover we're all screwed

[Purpleronnie]

Sometimes they are, but not inherently


There is an illusion around more being safer, ie money , food , power , attention and things !!.


Beat thy neighbor syndrome , we don’t need to have all of it , just more than our neighbor or the next man / woman.. better car , better garden etc


There is a growing culture of never being satisfied , accumulating wealth and possessions and winning …2nd place and everything else after is just a form of loosing.


And finally there is notion that those who fear the most , ie those that are really insecure , afraid of having nothing to, to be insignificant chase more.

[RavVid]

People are also altruistic. Arguably both are needed in society. If say Bill Gates wasn't greedy would the world be the same?

IBM was looking for an operating system for their brand new PC. They wanted to not own it because of trust action against them.

First they tried Kildall as CP/M was the recognized operating system for microprocessors. Famously he was late and didn't do a deal with IBM. Arguably not greedy enough to see the potential.

Bill Gates was their next try. He didn't have one but bought QDOS, an emulation of CP/M from Tim Paterson, and Licenced to IBM as MS DOS. Arguably greedy enough to see potential and he probably lied by omission to Tim Patterson.

[dragoblack]

The maintain ones mental morality, one most live like they are poverty, and not rely on convenience. When one has more money than they can burn through, it makes them cocky and bolder to do less moral things, especially when they know they can throw money at a problem to make it go away. It definitely doesn't help most of human society, laws, and judicial is based around protecting the rich and influential. Meaning it makes them think they can do anything no matter how horrid & evil, and have no consequences... key example, the Epstein files/island/list/emails. Morality exists in how one limits themselves in right and wrong.

[Anonymous]

Survival instincts. I mean, we can add moral conundrum to it. But at the heart of it it comes down to survival. Look at any animal you think an animal would think about stealing food from another animal. Let's look at in a more civilized, modern way. Say you worked at a company for years. You got passed over for promotion after promotion and you're underpaid. Yet the company is posting one banner year after the next. So you feel you deserve more. Now the opportunity presents itself for you to embezzle or "re-appropriate" company property so to speak.😆 either way they're both stealing. Either way it's wrong. But if you could get away with it, many, arguably most people, would consider this fair game and a lot wouldn't even consider it stealing.

[FunkyMonkee]

Maybe people have been poor for too long so, if they can get tons of cash, they want to hang onto it as much as possible. Apparently, it's also got to do with the way people think, or at least as far as money is concerned. I've been poor most of my life but if I suddenly came into a billion or two, I'd have no problem sharing some of it with others that really need it.

[Miristheiss]

Humans are evil. Liars, greedy, selfish, rebellious, there is no good in us.

Why is why we needed a savior.

[NaultD]

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It's not rocket science here.

[beefcakebradybatson]

Topping the thieves is Elon Musk, net worth, six hundred sixty-eight BILLION smackers;in other words, slightly more than two-thirds of a TRILLION bucks !!!

[Dargil]

I think it is in our dna. It's called survival instinct.

[exitseven]

Self preservation is baked into our DNA. It is related to that.

[jahaims]

High theft in poor countries is due to them being poor and needing a resource. Just like crime is higher in low income areas.

[qwerty2469]

Theft isn't a crime of greed. It's a crime of need. Grand larceny, Embezzlement, Insider Trading. Those are closer to crimes of greed.

[Anonymous]

Humans I guess descended from the dog-eat-dog-world of the brutal Animal Kingdom sadly

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

You assume greed in place of desperation

[Snowman84]

That’s a good point, people who are less fortunate are often the most generous and giving of whatever they can. I think the wealthy often use accusations of greed against the poor or minorities as a cover for their own selfish interests or greed.

[Asker]

Being desperate is not a valid reason to break the law. Saying “I was desperate” in court isn’t going to get a person off the hook.

[Snowman84]

If I took food without paying because I couldn’t watch my kids go hungry, would you consider me evil?

If I embezzled money from a corporation to pay for a new beach house am I evil?

Theft isn’t the same across the board.

[Asker]

They can go to a homeless shelter.

[Snowman84]

What if the shelter is full or a food bank lacked what was needed, or the area was under served?

[Asker]

There is more than one homeless shelter around. Surely they aren’t all full.

[Snowman84]

Depends on where and how the demand is. In American society the poor are counted as criminals and locked up, meanwhile the rich who often commit crimes rarely get punished and are celebrated

[CuriousMufuxka]

Mine! Gimme! Actually I have no idea..

[Kingofkings1992]

It's just human nature

[Danny_dan92]

Because