Can We PLEASE Define Our Terms?

Here's a minor editorial arguing somewhat roundaboutly that the exploration of space needs to be opened up to private hands: to use commerce and some capital liquidity as a means to getting to Mars and beyond. You know, allow folk to make some use of what's up there. Obviously, I don't have an ideological problem with that (practicality and safety, that's another matter). My objection is one of syntax:

abundant evidence from history should teach him that greed is one of the primary human motivators, the other being fear.

Will someone do me the favor and tell me why the profit motive is evidence of greed? It's become one of those maddening rhetorical habits of our society: anyone who seeks material reward for material investment is morally bankrupt. Now, I know that not even the liberalest liberal would phrase it that way. They'd say that of course nothing is wrong with seeking profit, but don't you think that, as a whole, our society, is overly interested in money? And shouldn't we be discouraging rather than encouraging that? I mean, look around at all the stuff we have! Isn't that enough?


I'm not going to use that strawman to argue that societies can't be greedy. They can, and often are. I'm going to argue that greed is a specific failing, and one which we should apply carefully, and as a condemnation, not casually as a whine. To wit: greed is the excessive love of material wealth, to the detriment or even exclusion of higher values. The key terms there are "excessive" and "higher values". Now, maybe them "deregulated CEO's with their short-term, self-serving accountant mentality," have crossed that threshold. Or maybe they're just looking for a revenue stream, and intend to make use of the extraterrestrial property without raping it. If only their were some moral code known and agreeable to all, which put ideas like this in context...