Greed and Human Nature is the name of an article I wrote that appeared in the November 2007 issue of Viewpoint. I asked in that article whether greed is a natural human trait or nurtured by some-thing in the experience of the individual. I indicated that I would like to believe that greed is an acquired characteristic but then I asked myself if this is so, why throughout recorded history has greed been rewarded by wealth and power. I had the good sense to question this last assertion, and stated that I am not an historian.

David McNally, in his book Another World is Possible : Globalization & Anti-Capitalism, emphatically disputes that greed is a natural human trait. He writes that the renowned economic anthropologist and historian Karl Polanyi, while examining a variety of human societies, noted that throughout history market exchanges have usually been accessories to economic life but not central to it.

McNally writes that Polanyi demonstrates that most human societies have been organized to the idea that "every member of society has duties and obligations to all others. Coupled with this is the notion of redistribution, the principle that the community systematically transfers wealth to those who have less. Consequently, the idea that economic life should be organized to maximize individual accumula-tions, had no place in these societies¹."

¹McNally, David. Another World is Possible : Globalization & Anti-Capitalism. 2d ed. Merlin Press, 2006. p. 87