Good observation , valid point . But what you see as greed , where this conversations concerned anyway , I see as an innate part of natural intelligence . Which is harmonious and benevolant , not selfish . Why I believe this is another topic .
But There is nothing wrong with wanting , with buying and looking to upgrade .You have been given the faculties of good taste , a love of difference for a reason .
Poison can be used in small doses to produce a greater good . Therefore as Rousseau says , the city itself is what makes people appreciate culture, despite the fact that it may also be a hub of crime and immorality .
Likewise trading with others , which takes place mainly in cities , has essentially helped propel us towards a greater humanitarianism .
We have too much to lose by fighting with our neighbours , and your right this can be seen as an innately selfish thing .
But likening the first developments of trade that flourished to a seed , as in mans mental/spiritual development has grown like a plant symbolically speaking from , basic primitive animal , to semi refined , to refined , to what we are seeing more of now , genuinely altruistic , we can see a picture develop .Wether you choose to see this picture is another issue .
As I said we have now become genuine friends with people from other countries who we would otherwise have fought with at the drop of a hat . Friends because we like each other not because we can get something in the form of goverment taxes or alike.
Through speaking to each other in the medieval periods we began to realize that we liked other peoples music , food , wine , clothes . This is the roots of democracy .
Consider the difference in attitude only 60 years ago towards women , colored people , the chinese , the japanese , the arabs . Crusades , wars , all sorts . Unfounded racial slurs against almost everyone . Built on hundreds of years of war . Paranoia and suspicion .
Trade has encouraged genuine altruism . Therefore I see that trade is an innate part of natural intelligence , which is benevolant , and not as a necessary part of evolution which is only reciprocal.
Business can cripple the third world , but it also creates millions of jobs , and new technologies , all of which help . Its a matter of how to trade and with what , that will be our next philosophical dilemma . But of course the answer has always been there in nature .
Nature disposes of billions of dead corpses every year , deals with tons of water , snow and ice . And yet its system is perfect. Every conceivable insect and micro biotic creature is in place to disintegrate flesh and bones etc.
And here we are polluting the earth with billions of tons of waste that is non persishable . You see , we are still quite slow mentally in some areas . But goverment policies are catching up on the magnificent intelligence of nature .
Create perishable products to save polluting the earth . We are just starting to realize that , but nature has done it all along .
Look at the alliances many creatures have with each other in nature , Small fish that swim with sharks and dont get eaten , but protected in return for a cleaning service , and so it continues throughout the insect and animal kingdom.
Wild beasts that would otherwise devour and tear at another creature , they have no consciousness like us , and yet they help teach us the art of business & trade . Harmony .
We are so much better than small fish , and we can use our unique sense of morality to shape these things we learn from nature into the most benevolant acts and exchanges between people.
