Greed, for a lack of better word, is good. Greed works. Greed is right. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all its form, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. -Gekko

Free market as a concept does not suck. It only sucks because we are not in a perfect market nirvana. Yet, it is still the best thing that we have. Until we could find a better way to allocate resources, free market is here to stay.

As defined by Oxford
greed / grēd/
• n. intense and selfish desire for something, esp. wealth, power, or food.

Obesity is greed + stupidity.

Humans are by nature greedy. 200000 years ago, we were greedy for food and caves. Now we are greedy for different things. You be your own judge on what is right and what is wrong. All I know is, if you aggregate greed you get what is driving the economy. And the single biggest driver? Money. Or deferred goods and services depending on how you view money. Is that bad? You tell me.

Do you see the problem complaining about rich people?

Ok, in your ideal world, some one like Warren Buffett should not have USD40b in his account. Ok, so lets say we cap his earnings per year to 100k. What would happen then? He would simply do enough to earn 100k and just chill for the rest of the year. Whose is going to make up for the lost income generated by him? There would be a significant lost of productivity from one of the best asset allocators in the world. This is what is known as a deadweight lost.

The fact is, he is worth USD40b because he has done USD40b worth of net work. And he has done it legally while indirectly it also increased social welfare. If you think he is overpaid, go do what he does. Increase in supply would drive down the price. Simple economics.

The socialist nirvana in a lot of younger people's mind simply does not exist. A bricklayer laying bricks for 10 hours does not equal to the amount of work that Warren Buffett does in 10 hours. Firstly, 10 hours of bricklaying work would probably only add USD1000 to the value of the house/economy. 10 hours of Buffett's work would add maybe 1000x of USD1000 to a company/economy. It is easy to see why Buffett's work is valued higher by everyone(market participants). It is because he adds tremendous value. Secondly, almost every able bodied person could do bricklaying after a short amount of training. And the fact is, no one is able to do what Buffett is able to do. Even people with a parallel amount of technical skill (ie Charlie Munger) cannot do what he does. He has a certain je ne sais quoi and a certain talent combined with a favourable environment that makes him really really good at what he does. A socialist nirvana would not reward either of those. Talented people that could positively change the world are suppressed. The world would be worse off if you do not allow talent to flourish.

Doesn't matter. I was just trying to make a point. It is easier to illustrate it when you consider his asset as cash. Bringing in networth and stock's market value would just open a can of liquidity worms that is probably more suited for another topic.

I would count you as having 110k cash if:
1) The market has sufficient liquidity to allow you to liquidate your house as soon as you want to
2) The market has enough liquidity to ensure that you receive fair value for your house ie. close or marginal to the value of a previous sale of a similar asset that offers the same risk and return.
3) The is no cyclical bust in the market that is currently artificially depressing your house and the liquidation of your house has little to no impact on the market.
4) There is minimal to no transaction cost

Like I say, I am only using USD40b in the bank to illustrate a point. That was not the crux of my previous post. How does having USD40b in the bank or networth make any difference to the spirit of original post you quoted?