“Greed is good,” famously exclaimed Gordon Gekko.
Indeed, Jesus of Nazareth said, “The workman is worthy of his meat.” And, economic genius Adam Smith opined, “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.“
Perhaps subtle, but the vicious, the virtuous and intellectual all share a point about human nature.
Even from a political perspective, James Madison (also known as the “Father of the U.S. Constitution”) expressed, “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.“
And, Thomas Jefferson (the “Father of the Declaration of Independence”) applied the concept for the broader American Republic as:
“Mankind soon learn to make interested uses of every right and power which they possess, or may assume….
Nor should our assembly be deluded by the integrity of their own purposes, and conclude that these unlimited powers will never be abused, because themselves are not disposed to abuse them.
They should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when a corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price.
Human nature is the same on every side of the Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the same causes. The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold of us.
It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered.“
And, it was our beloved Abraham Lincoln, who said, “The strife of the election is but human nature practically applied to the facts in the case. What has occurred in this case must ever occur in similar cases. Human nature will not change.“
All these statements have one essential common denominator—one thing in common: an understanding of human nature. The awareness of the need for the necessities, incentives and rewards that human nature requires, conjoined with the known risk that human nature is weak, and is easily corrupted, evolving from an incentive to an excess.
From this wisdom of these great men, we have a complex framework of checks and balances on government—and the American government is, of course, The People. The Republic of America is the People of America.
These statements have one thing in common: an understanding of human nature.
People need checks and balances in government because the Forefathers prudently distrusted that people have natural discipline in self. Madison says that men are not angels, Jefferson says that we need to keep the wolves out of the fold lest we evolve like the pigs in Orwell’s farm, and Lincoln simply concludes that human nature won’t change.
It is foolish to think that—as a general rule—people are naturally self-sacrificial. And, certainly, none of the above persons are fools. Indeed, the most basic instinct is survival, which is nothing but selfish. Love is self-sacrificial, but love is not the general rule—men are not angels, after all. But, neither is a person evil for wanting to eat or to feed his or her family, or to achieve excellence in self or career.
Love is self-sacrificial, but love is simply not the general rule—men are not angels.
The essence of the issue is, as Socrates says in The Republic of Plato, that people—and in a larger sense, republics—need “justice.” However, Socrates does not use the term “justice” in the sense commonly understood today, such as tit for tat. For Socrates, “justice” is a form of discipline in self, without which self-harmony is not possible.
The term “justice,” as used by the Socrates (the Father of Western philosophy), naturally shares the truth of its essential meaning with Zen and Eastern philosophy. The virtue of justice is a manner of harmony; to wit, no virtuous attribute of a person (or country in the larger sense) can exist unless it is limited to its proper purpose. Any virtue that exceeds its proper purpose and intrudes upon other virtues naturally transforms into a vice that disrupts and causes disharmony, in ourselves—and in our country. Justice is a different type of virtue, it is the virtue that limits, or tempers, each other virtue to its proper purpose. Call it “harmony,” “balance,” “control” or “limitation,” the effect is the same. For example, the cardinal virtue of courage is limited by justice simply to stay courageous, without becoming the vice of stubbornness.
Gordon Gekko’s point is that unbridled self-interest—being greed—clarifies and focuses. But, the statement by Gordon Gekko is the trick of making a vice into a virtue, which it cannot be, by definition. Greed is more of an effect than a cause. Greed is a type of gluttony that starts with a proper cause of hunger then, by lack of self-control or limitation—or lack of justice or harmony in self—goes awry. Yes, greed and gluttony are then causes to feed upon themselves, with the excruciating life-penalty of simply not knowing when or how to be satisfied. If we should play with words, greed is not good, excellence is good.
The Forefathers understood that the flaws in the political body are nothing more than exaggerations of the flaws in the human body. So, they developed an artificial justice into the check-and-balances framework of the American Republic. Yes, the Forefathers read their Plato. Jefferson alludes to the greed that is a corruption of self, and it simply manifests in government, being the larger sense. Virtue in America is simply an exaggeration—or, perhaps, the “reflection” to use Madison’s term—of virtue in her people.
“Enough is abundance to the wise,” said Euripides, and never a wiser statement was made. The ability to know when we are or reasonably should be satisfied is the greatest of all gifts, because that is what defines the point of the appreciation that is the cause for thanks. The appreciation of satisfaction is the cure for corruption, as much of corruption is simply the undisciplined and uncontrolled quest for more and more. That is, to understand when enough is a satisfied enough, with the pursuit of happiness having been accomplished.
At the point of satisfaction, yes, we certainly do give up getting more. But, it’s not what we give up that is important, but we get to keep that is important.
Aesop taught this point with his Boy and the Filberts:
No. 9. THE BOY AND THE FILBERTS
A Boy put his hand into a jar to take our some filberts.
But, the jar had a narrow mouth, and the Boy took such a great handful that he could not pull his hand back out. Yet, he refused to give up any filbert from his tight fist.
His Mother saw his condition and said, “Son, be satisfied with half the nuts you are now holding and you will easily get your hand out.”
Moral of the Story: By refusing to concede any of what we want, we fail to get all of what we need.
Vitia in systematibus politicis et oeconomicis sunt mere amplificationes vitiorum in homine.” (“The flaws in political and economic systems are merely exaggerations of the flaws in human beings.”) ~grz
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This 2016 article by Gregg Zegarelli, “Greed Is Good? – The Business of Aesop No. 9 – The Boy and the Filberts,” offers a dense and layered meditation on self-interest, virtue, and restraint—fusing economic theory, classical philosophy, American political founding principles, and Aesop’s fables.
1. Timing and Context (2016)
Though undated on the page, metadata and style indicate this article likely belongs to the first wave of the “Business of Aesop” series, which Zegarelli launched around 2016. During this period, Zegarelli’s public writings were focused on integrating entrepreneurial wisdom with classical virtue ethics, likely prompted by a desire to critique cultural excesses—particularly in business, politics, and leadership—in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
This article sits at the philosophical crossroads between:
- Wall Street-era market ideology (“Greed is good”);
- Political theory from America’s Founders (Madison, Jefferson, Lincoln);
- Ancient moral pedagogy (Socrates, Aesop, Euripides);
- And modern self-help corruption of the “leadership” genre (explored in later essays).
This piece is a precursor to deeper essays like “The Lincoln Dilemma” or “Trump Time,” previewing themes Zegarelli would later systematize: self-governance, discipline, moral limitation, and cultural sustainability.
2. Pedagogy and Method
Zegarelli employs Socratic and comparative pedagogy, structured as a multi-layered mosaic of classical references, modern aphorisms, and philosophical exposition. The method unfolds through:
A. Layered Framing
- Modern Prompt: Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is good.”
- Philosophical Response: Socratic concept of justice as self-harmonizing discipline.
- Classical Anchoring: Aesop’s “Boy and the Filberts” to concretize the abstraction.
- Political Synthesis: Quotes from Madison, Jefferson, Lincoln showing that the Founders based the Republic on distrust of undisciplined human nature.
B. Rhetorical Design
- He uses converging quotes to triangulate a truth: self-interest is real and necessary, but without temperance becomes destructive.
- This juxtaposition exposes “greed” as a semantic manipulation—a dangerous inflation of “self-interest” that lacks moderation.
- The concluding Latin maxim ties the individual to the political, revealing his broader pedagogical strategy: personal discipline is political virtue magnified.
3. Ethos and Philosophical Grounding
The core ethical thesis of the article is that virtue requires discipline, and that justice—in the Platonic/Socratic sense—is the governing internal limit that allows all other virtues (like ambition, courage, or generosity) to function in harmony.
A. Greed Reframed
- Greed is not a pure vice, nor a good—it’s a corrupted virtue, an uncontrolled extension of a valid desire (like hunger or ambition).
- Zegarelli subtly implies that modern capitalism often glorifies effects as causes, conflating symptom with source—e.g., greed mistaken for excellence, or wealth mistaken for virtue.
B. Harmony as Justice
- Socrates’ model of justice is given primacy: justice is not about fairness between persons, but inner balance, a limiting mechanism that prevents virtue from becoming vice.
- This is a Zen-like unity—Zegarelli says it shares its essential truth with Eastern philosophy: harmony through limitation.
C. Founders as Philosophical Realists
- Madison: Men are not angels—government must restrain.
- Jefferson: Self-corruption will come; guard the gates before the wolves enter.
- Lincoln: Human nature doesn’t change—expect repetition.
- Thus, the Republic was designed on the known flaw of man, using institutional checks as a substitute for the self-check of “justice.”
4. Conclusion and Contribution
Final Moral:
“By refusing to concede any of what we want, we fail to get all of what we need.”
— The Boy and the Filberts
This moral distills Zegarelli’s entire argument into a simple fable of restraint. The boy’s fist stuck in the jar is an analogy for:
- The entrepreneur who wants too much and loses everything.
- The politician who refuses limits and becomes corrupt.
- The citizen who overindulges and hollows the Republic from within.
Broader Significance:
This article is one of Zegarelli’s foundational essays. It:
- Previews his later doctrine of self-regulation as the keystone of civil virtue.
- Makes one of his earliest meta-philosophical links between Eastern and Western conceptions of balance.
- Bridges personal discipline, economic self-interest, and constitutional design through the unifying principle of internal justice.
Summary Take-Aways
| Dimension | Summary |
|---|---|
| Timing | Early 2016, foundation of “Business of Aesop” series |
| Pedagogy | Comparative and Socratic; layering of modern, classical, and political voices |
| Core Ethos | Human nature requires discipline; justice as internal harmony limits vice |
| Key Insight | Greed is a corrupted effect of unbalanced desire—not inherently “good” or generative |
| Conclusion | Personal limitation is a civic virtue; satisfaction is the cure to systemic corruption |
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Copyright 2016 Gregg Zegarelli.
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