"The Costliest Sin"

Edmund Spenser, a British poet from the last half of the 16th Century, wrote his famous epic poem “The Faerie Queen” in the 1590’s. The first half was completed in 1590 and the last half in 1596. It was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. In this poem he refers to the seven deadly sins of man. Spenser suggested in his poem that Pride was the worst of the deadly sins. He looked at the fallen angel’s rebellion against God, and the audacity of Satan to want to usurp God as examples. You've heard the expression “Pride goeth before the fall”. History is complete with characters that allowed pride (and its second cousin arrogance) to be their undoing. Richard Nixon comes to mind, perhaps Douglas MacArthur in the Korean conflict, A.J. Smith. No doubt about it, false pride, and pride in excess can bring a person down. Also on Spenser’s list of seven sins was avarice (greed). It was not his number one sin at the time, but if Spenser were writing his epic today he would likely have put greed at the top of the sin list. Avarice is the root of much evil in today's world.

Consider: a few years ago (in California) energy companies successfully lobbied for the deregulation of their own industry. The local energy company (SDG&E) immediately raised bills through the roof. People saw their bills triple or quadruple in a month. Typical 80.00 monthly charges became 240.00 overnight. A huge outcry went up; other counties experienced the same scenario. It took about 5 months for the Governor to undo the immediate and severe gouging by these energy companies. Eventually, regulation went back into effect. Since that time bills have been in the ball park of fair. Why did SDG & E cook their own goose by immediately gouging people? Simple answer is “because they could”. The common welfare was thrown out the window for huge profits. I mean before the aborted deregulation and then subsequent to its restoration SDG&E never once went into default or declared they didn't make enough money. They just had the chance to gouge people and they did it, immediately and without blinking an eye.

Consider: Gasoline is 3.29 a gallon in Nebraska and at the same time it is 3.99 in California. Why? The answer is simple: because they can charge Californians 3.99. Oil companies know Californians need to drive, they must drive and so they can charge whatever they want. What about the common good? What about the common welfare? All out the window. They would charge 20.00 a gallon if they thought they could get away with it. What if in the city of New York it was decided a Metro Card would cost 300.00 a month, what would people do except riot, burn the subway or just find a way to pay it. The point is when companies have you by the short ones, they squeeze, they take advantage. Doing what is right and fair never enters the discussion.

Consider: Goldman-Sachs (in the 2000’s) ran up debts and highest level executives paid each other stratospheric bonuses because they knew they could. They knew the people (tax payers) needed them more than they needed the taxpayers. Clearly! Apparently they were right because the Government (tax payers) forgave them their bad business, their greed and gave them money to stay in business. Do you think the big boys at Goldman-Sachs ever really sweated that much? Did they really worry that they would be allowed to go under? In any event, for the top 10% of the executives it didn't matter because they had already paid themselves before the collapse, they could walk away. Forget Jenny the receptionist, she’s on her own.


Consider: The free enterprise system has always been about profit and making money. But it used to be self-governed by an unwritten creed not to gouge the customer, that the business needed the customer as much as the customer needed the business. Not anymore, screw the customer and the more leverage I have over them (the more they need me versus me needing them) the more I can gouge. Honor went out the window some decades back and it hasn't been allowed to come back nor have the people demanded it come back.

Consider: Is it possible that Republicans would actually block efforts at improving the economy because they believe a failed economy is their best chance at winning back the White House? I know it’s been brought up more than once that they would sacrifice the American people to keep the bad economy going. I believe some (I hope not many) Republicans think that way, and they would justify it as being in the long-term interest of the country. But lest you think I am all over the Republicans, I believe the democrats would likely do the same thing. Is winning that big a deal? Is it?

Consider: Name the last President (including the sitting one) that left office anywhere close to what they had (money) when they came in? Name any congressman, that doesn't use their position to leverage monetary income in all sorts of ways. All the Presidential hopefuls are politicians that are fully awash in personal cash.

OF COURSE winning is everything. To the victors go the spoils and in the last 40 years the spoils have mounted up substantially. We took a left turn in this country somewhere in the last 35 years and common welfare became the red-headed stepchild in the back bedroom. Money became the end all/be all. Serving the people, self-sacrifice, and the common welfare (doing what would be morally right) all were sacrificed to the God of Money.

Gordon Gecko, in the movie Wall Street summed up the last 35 years with his mantra “Greed is good”. In the sequel (2010) he once again uses people, stealing money, lying, manipulating, leveraging, to get a billion dollars because “Greed is still good”. The movie-makers did try to soften his greed by having him give away 10% of his ill-gotten gains to an energy company. In fact, that was the stupidest part of the movie. It was out of character for him to give a shit about anybody except himself. OH yeah that’s right,the reason he gave the money because it was a big issue with his daughter’s boyfriend and he wanted to win her back. (10% was the right amount because we are left believing they will be just fine) So in fact he buys her love back for 10% of his obscene wealth.
Are we supposed to think that is a good thing?

Many ham and egg Americans have also fed at the money trough. Ordinary people in California were rolling their home purchases over (in some cases yearly) to reap obscene amounts of money. Making 60K a year but wearing Rolex’s and driving Lexus cars to create the illusion of being rich. Most people knew it was weird and didn't seem right but what the hell there was money to be made. The only difference between the average greedy Joe's out there and the Gordon Gecko's is scale. There are people to be sure that can say they never compromised their values. There are people that could have gouged customers and did not. There are morally principled people in every county in this country. Unfortunately, none are running for high office.

Spenser made it clear in his long, poem that there are sins that mostly harm the individual: gluttony, envy and laziness for example. He also said there are sins that harm not only us but others: pride, wrath, and lechery fit that mold.
But there is one sin that demands the highest price. It's the most costliest of the sins : greed. It hurts many others and for long periods of time. Greed is the kind of sin that eats away the lining of your soul and blights the people around you. We all need to be mindful about this and demand our leaders be mindful of it as well.