Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
I looked up "greed" in the dictionary.
It is defined as "excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness."
I looked up "acquisitive."
It is defined as "strongly desirous of acquiring and possessing."
I looked up those words because I was remembering a phrase that was bandied about quite a bit during the first part of this decade.
That phrase, used in reference to the preceding 10-year period, was "decade of greed."
You remember. When Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, that was one of his campaign themes.
We had to leave behind that awful "decade of greed," the 1980s.
(I thought it was a real hoot when it came out shortly thereafter that Hillary Clinton made $100,000 overnight in a hot futures deal.)
But anyway, if the 1980s were the decade of greed, a time when we all were replete with an excessive or reprehensible desire to acquire and possess, doesn't it beg the question:
What must the 1990s be?
All I've been hearing is how wonderful everything is. How prosperous. How the economy is booming.
But isn't all that prosperity the barometer for greed?
Or is it just that old political distinction that's subliminally drilled into us continually by the national media? You know. Republicans bad, Democrats good.
It's the one that was not-so-subliminally drilled into us throughout the impeachment mess.
Evil Republicans picking on the upstanding Democrat president while all he was trying to do was the peoples' work.
If you buy that, you must believe that the peoples' work includes fooling around with interns in the oval office, perjury, obstruction of justice and, most recently, contempt of court and bombing the heck out of Yugoslavia.
Of course, the peoples' work also must include losing track of the secret to the neutron bomb. But, as the president said, it's a big government and we can't expect him to know about everything.
So it only stands to reason that if the economy does well while a Republican is in the White House, it's the decade of greed.
But if the economy does well while a Democrat is in the White House, it's the decade of prosperity.
Frankly, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the economy took a turn for the worse. It cost George Bush the election.
Remember the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid."
So even with a downturn in the economy at the end, the 1980s were still the decade of greed, according to Bill Clinton.
So what about the '90s?
To find an answer, I turned to the Statistical Abstract of America. It's a wonderful book, full of fascinating numbers.
Numbers about anything.
I undertook a very unscientific look at statistics I thought might be relevant to greed - or prosperity - depending on your point of view.
Private philanthropy
Charitable giving rose from $48.6 billion in 1980 to $111.5 billion in 1990. That's a 130 percent increase during the decade of greed.
Through 1995, during the decade of prosperity, it reached $140 billion, a 26 percent increase over 1990. If it continues at that pace, charitable giving will rise 52 percent during the decade of prosperity.
Mortgages outstanding
Those have remained pretty steady. During the decade of greed, there was a 33 percent increase in mortgages outstanding - from 30 million to 40 million. From 1990 to 1997 the number was up to 51 million, a 27 percent increase.
Dow Jones average
During the decade of greed, the Dow moved from 963.99 in 1980 to 2633.7 in 1990. That's a 170 percent increase. But since then, so far during the 1990s, the Dow has hit 10,400. That's a 294 percent increase.
Market value of stocks
These are stocks and options on registered exchanges.
Decade of greed - $522 billion to $1.7 trillion, a whopping 225 percent increase. Through 1996 in the decade of prosperity - $1.7 trillion to $4.73 trillion, a less whopping 178 percent, but that's only through 1996, the last year listed in the book. I would imagine as a decade, the 1990s will outstrip the 1980s in this category.
Volume of trading
1980, 11.5 trillion shares. 1990, 40 trillion shares. A 247 percent increase. From 1990 to 1997, that 40 trillion figure rose to 134 trillion, a 235 percent increase in seven years.
Poverty
The number and percentage of people living below poverty level.
Year Number Pctg.
1980 29M 13
1990 33.5 13.5
1994 38M 14.5
1995 36.4 13.8
1996 36.5 13.7
As I said before, this is totally unscientific and I really didn't spend a great deal of time poking around in that book.
But it certainly looks to me like the excessive or reprehensible desire to acquire and possess of the 1980s is being equalled or exceeded in the 1990s.
Sure, the S&L crisis of the 1980s was a pretty greedy chapter in our history. But are the corporate mergers, acquisitions and downsizings of the 90s any less a product of greed? How about those stratospheric CEO salaries we hear about all the time?
So what's the difference, really, between the "greed" of the 1980s and the "prosperity" of the 1990s?
Perception.
