Greed causes a great deal of negative problems with the politics and economy of our nation.

I disagree with your definition of Wealth. I stand by the economic definition of wealth, which is a. all things that have a monetary or exchange value. b. anything that has utility and is capable of being appropriated or exchanged. But even regardless of your definition of greed, it still applies to everybody (which isn't incorrect). You say that "... the very basis of being greedy is wanting to have more than you need..." The vast majority of people seek such, including you. You're sitting here on a computer, able to chat with me, rather than living in a unheated hut living on mere subsistence. Need is something of only the most savage of peoples- something that people without capitalism must worry about (Pre-Industrial). With Capitalism, people have gone far beyond 'need', and into more luxuries, wants, desires, entertainment, good food, TV's, ETC. This is not bad, this is in fact why we as an industrialized nation have such a high standard of living. This evil greed, this evil desire to have more than you need has brought us from living on our own farms to living in a society like we have today, one with very high standards of living, and livelihood. Population exploded when Capitalism and good came into the world. You seem to misunderstand how Capitalism and 'Greed' work, wealth is not finite, one person being rich does not take away riches from anybody else. Nobody is harmed in the making of capitalistic wealth. Both parties benefit from the mutual agreement, otherwise it wouldn't have happened without coercion. As for your specific complains..... Walmart does indeed get more and more money. At what cost does wal-mart get this money? Well- all of our lives are substantially improved! Things cost less money, especially things need a lot (groceries). We can spend this extra money on other things, things we want but might not 'need'. Employees of walmart get paid above minimum wage, and are benefited as they agreed to go to work for Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart agreed to pay for them in exchange of this labor. While Wal-Mart employees may not make 80,000 dollars a year, they aren't WORTH 80,000 dollars a year. The market determines the price of labor, and Wal-Mart moves ABOVE the market price- perhaps for a steady stream of labor. It is better that they have a job at Wal-Mart than no job at all, and remember, since this isn't socialism employees get to CHOOSE where they work. If they don't appreciate walmart, they can move to any other job they wish. As for the 'child labor', ETC complains, AFAIK most if not all busniesses have stopped hiring children, and actually have very nice factories that help the people in that country develop. There is no 'downfall', only money being put into the economy though cheap prices, and wages for laborers. EXXON makes all their money though selling things like in the stock market (Buy low, sell high sorts of things). The price you see at the pump is determined by the market and no one else.... except the government which is actually a big contributer to the rising price of gas. You might notice gas rising more and more- not because of the rich and evil greedy businessmen.... but because of the PRC and India- two new markets, very large ones, that are just starting to industrialize to the point where we are. As far as illegal immigration goes, a rise in population isn't necessarily harmful. We have lots of room. I have no idea where you get the statistic that the average American can not live off of minimum wage, and it's quite clear you're wrong by your own example. The illegal immigrations do in fact live off of the MARKET wage, NOT MINIMUM WAGE. Sure, they don't live the best of lives, but that's typical for unskilled workers who just move in the country and it's far better than they will find in their home country of Mexico. This isn't a bad thing, this is in fact a very good thing. They're obviously helping the illegal immigrants who would rather work here than work anywhere else. They're mutually benefited by this agreement. The only problem here is the government, who would be happy to throw these businessmen in jail for simply following the market. In all of the examples you gave me you showed greed as a bad thing, when in fact in all of the examples it was a key to prosperity!