More Money Does Not Make People Less Greedy: Moral Choice

  The case at Wal-mart of an ex-vice chairman,  Thomas Coughlin,  receiving a salary of over a million dollars a year and with over $20 million in stock embezzling $500,000 is typical of the behavior of people who get wrapped up in thinking money will solve their insecurities. 

I remember cases from my Wall Street career where we had to fire people being paid several hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for things like falsifying entertainment receipts worth a few hundred dollars.  In all these cases, I found the perpetrator usually believes they are being ripped off by their employer and they are only getting back part of what they deserve. We subject ourselves to rationalizations in order to steal, lie, cheat and harm ourselves or others.  These rationalizations do more harm that the immoral act.  We take ourselves outside the world; ignore our own empathies, shame, anger and guilt.  We end up further from our own sense of self and thus feel unattached to ourselves.  It is that detachment that leads to self loathing and thus increases the ability to create further harm to ourselves and the world around us.