...the back of a hotdog vendor, and flew back through the goalpost; whereupon the referee declared a reverse field goal and penalized his team 3 points.
The term "corporate greed" has been much in the news for some months, used mostly in a pejorative sense. In addition to newscasters and talk show participants, people on the street quote it with abandon. So we thought it would be good to analyze the term.
Here are some definitions quoted from various authorities:
Greed: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed.
Corporate: of, or relating to a corporation; having qualities (as commercialism or lack of originality) associated with large corporations or attributed to their influence or control.
Corporation: a corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law. -Chief Justice John Marshall in 1819
(It might be noted here that various bodies operate as corporations-eg. hospitals, churches, schools, some governmental organizations, charitable institutions, and some individuals, etc.)
Since a corporation is invisible and intangible, it follows that it can have no emotions. Therefore, is the term corporate greed an oxymoron?
Perhaps we should be more specific in our accusations. We could refer to things like board of directors greed, CEO greed, stockholder greed, union greed, Wall Street employee greed, and so on.
It seems to us that if we are disposed to be honest, most of us must admit to being greedy to one degree or other. There are exceptions such as clerics who have taken a vow of poverty, people who are more interested in the welfare of other people and animals than their own progress, etc.
So it seems to us that we should be very careful of accusing others of greed.
And so we have probably antagonized many people and that's the end.
