Greed is never a victimless crime

Whenever someone enabled by their wealth to do such things, buys more of the limited and exhaustible necessities than they need, be it land, water, food, fuel or whatever, they bid the price of those resources out of reach of someone else who was on the verge of not affording the bare minimum.  That power to diminish well being is not the advertised face of wealth.   Less altruistic behavior is a common reaction to a net scarcity of resources but we make it worse with an economics that artificially worsens the scarcity by enabling some of us to hoard.

When the rich pay for more than they need, 

the poor pay more for what they need.

I was put in mind of this by the Bill Maher video that Shokai brought to our attention.

The merit of having a plan for more sustained or broadly beneficial use of a resource is effectively nil under the reward schemes of our economy.  We put the good faces of Lincoln, Washington, Hamilton and Franklin on our money.  That almost seems like lying to me.  Money is a sweetener to hide the real flavor of the inhumane nature of our transactions.  Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Gordon Gekko, Phil Gramm and Ronald Reagan's faces are the ones we should see each time we trade.