A "Greedy Bastard" is a Behavior, Not a Person or Group

Our political system is being bought at auction.  Legislative policy and regulation is being catered to the highest bidder, and we are witnessing the greatest exodus of wealth and production from our shores in the history of the United States.

At every level of governance, money has become the voice with the strongest resonance, the friend with the greatest benefit, and the focus of every politician, whether they be Republican or Democrat.  The mainstream media has become complicit in this auction system, granting a free pass to the political establishment as our nation’s education, healthcare, infrastructure, and trade apparatuses crumble around us.  In short, we are a nation being controlled by Greedy Bastards.

But what, exactly, is a Greedy Bastard?  The inclination of many people frustrated with the system is to search for a scapegoat, someone they can pin all of these problems on and see them held accountable for the extraction of America’s wealth.  While there are certainly people that could be held directly responsible for America’s current woes, the argument forwarded in Greedy Bastards is not a person or a group, but rather a behavior.

Greedy Bastard behavior uses deception to get you to agree to a deal while passing off the risk to you without you knowing about it.  It exploits influence for private gain.  Greedy Bastards offer customers a low price on something they need, but if you dig deep enough there’s always a catch.  That catch is a sliver of chance that something monumentally terrible will happen.  Greedy Bastards use money to advocate policies that will make this seemingly impossible event happen.

This is defined in the book as The Very Bad Deal, and Greedy Bastards continue making deals like this with industry.  Greedy Bastard behavior is everywhere: multi-trillion dollar thefts across the country in banking, trade, energy, healthcare, education, and even the politicians they buy.

We must recognize Greedy Bastard behavior and seize the modern tools to enforce shared visibility, integrity, and choice into every decision we make so that we can align our interests.  For the full definition:

Dylan Ratigan is the author of the newly-released Greedy Bastards and host of The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC.