Interesting how it is often greed (by the rich and poor both) that create te biggest of our natural disasters and other problems...
Generic comments usually come from reflexive reactions [2], which tend to be quick and shallow. What we want on HN are curious conversations, which are a different species altogether.
[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
Individual greed is often limited by the fact that we are all humans in the end. Business greed is limited by competition and the fact that they have to still participate in the society. But politician's reckless behavior is often unhinged and unchecked.
The private-enterprise transatlantic slave trade is good for another 100m or so.
No, its not, and its obviously not if “business" and “State” greed are not, because those things don't actually exist as separate things, they are just names for special cases of combinations of individual behavior.
It's due both to the fact that there is nothing above to supervise (the State is an ultimate authority, with nothing, not even other state, above) and that pretty much every controversial decision is taken in the name and for the good of - The People - an abstract concept even more divorced from reality.
There are limited counterexamples in specific situations, but I don't believe that we have yet figured out a viable alternative to "the state" for organizing human societies at large scale.