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Greed is foolish
Sharing enriches everyone
Abundance needs flow
-安天美
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"greed is foolish" isn't just moral philosophy - it's a practical observation about how wealth actually works. History repeatedly shows us that excessive accumulation often backfires on the accumulators themselves. Consider the late 19th century's Gilded Age, where extreme wealth concentration led to economic instability and ultimately forced reforms. The very systems built to hoard wealth became unsustainable precisely because they undermined the foundations of prosperity: a stable middle class, functional markets, and broad-based consumer purchasing power.
The declaration finds one of its clearest historical validations in Henry Ford's revolutionary $5 workday announcement in 1914. Ford doubled the prevailing wage not from pure generosity, but from shrewd business insight. The immediate result was reduced turnover, increased productivity, and - crucially - workers who could afford the Model T's $825 price tag. This strategy helped grow Ford's annual production from 300,000 cars in 1914 to over 2 million by 1923, proving that investing in worker prosperity directly enhanced company success.
This lesson remains relevant today, where we see the opposite effect when companies prioritise short-term profits over sustainable growth. The foolishness of pure accumulation becomes evident in the resulting instability of both markets and workforces. Evidently, “sharing enriches everyone”.
The success of the Mondragon Corporation in Spain offers a remarkable example of how shared ownership creates resilient prosperity. Founded in 1956, Mondragon has grown to become the world's largest worker cooperative, with over 80,000 employees. Their model ensures that the highest-paid employees cannot earn more than 6-8 times the lowest salary, creating a more equitable distribution of wealth while maintaining market competitiveness. During Spain's economic crisis of 2008-2013, while unemployment in the country reached 26%, Mondragon's worker-owner model helped them maintain stability and even grow in some sectors.
This approach to shared prosperity doesn't just benefit workers - it creates more stable businesses. Mondragon's annual revenues exceed €12 billion, demonstrating that profit and shared prosperity aren't mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.
Costco's business model under Jim Sinegal provides another well-documented case of how prioritising worker wellbeing drives sustainable success. While competitors focused on minimising labor costs, Costco maintained significantly higher wages and benefits. The result? Lower turnover (5-10% compared to retail industry averages of 60+%), higher productivity, and better customer service. This strategy helped Costco grow from its founding in 1983 to a company with over $200 billion in annual revenue today.
What makes this example particularly powerful is how it contradicted conventional retail wisdom. Wall Street analysts often criticised Costco's "excessive" labor costs, yet the company's stock performance and growth consistently proved that investing in workers was good business.
Microsoft's early developer relations program in the 1990s demonstrates how creating opportunities for others can generate massive returns. By providing tools, documentation, and support to independent developers, Microsoft created an ecosystem that dramatically expanded the market for their products. The Windows platform became valuable precisely because they enabled others to build successful businesses upon it. This strategy helped transform Microsoft from a software company into a platform company worth over $2 trillion today.
This example shows how "abundance needs flow" operates in practice - by helping others succeed, Microsoft created more value than they could have by trying to develop everything internally. The ecosystem approach generated opportunities far beyond what any single company could create alone.
These examples collectively illustrate a profound truth: sustainable prosperity operates more like a river than a reservoir. Just as a river's strength comes from continuous flow rather than static accumulation, economic value multiplies through movement and exchange rather than hoarding. Whether through fair wages, shared ownership, or platform ecosystems, the evidence consistently shows that creating systems of reciprocal benefit generates more sustainable wealth than pursuing narrow self-interest. In this light, the ancient wisdom captured in our opening verse reveals itself as not just poetic truth, but practical economic principle - the path to lasting prosperity lies in fostering flow, not fighting it.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/backward_blue.svg" alt="/icons/backward_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Dream Reality
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<aside> <img src="/icons/forward_blue.svg" alt="/icons/forward_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Modern Control
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