I understand what you mean but I don't fully agree with you. It's indeed the fact of not having money or power that creates evil. But if someone takes everything for himself, he's condemning others which will revolt.
Am not saying you should not have money or prosper in life. Rather you should always earn the maximum but you need not be greedy. This can always be detrimental to your pocket.
Definition of greed
An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.
In other words, it's earning in excess which is not good. You need to leave some for your neighbours or colleagues as well. You cannot take all for yourself despite the fact that you may be hard-working and deserve all the money you actually earn.
If you have time, do read this.
There is some contradiction here. In the previous part, you said that we do have a right to
prosper and earn the
maximum. While in the latter part you said that greed is not good ie. possessing more than one
needs/deserves. How can one prosper and earn the maximum and at the same time, possess not more than one needs/deserves?
Also, the word need and deserve was used as the synonym. I don't think this is the case. In my opinion, whether someone deserves something is determined by whether
he has it or not. You deserve it, so you have it. You don't, so you don't have it. Its pretty simple.
To be realistic, one needs very less. I need very less wealth to cover my basic needs (eg. shelter, food, security etc). Talking in that respect, I do not
need to study in a good expensive school which offers Cambridge syllabuses. I can get my basic education in a local, feeble one. That would cover my
needs well. While at the same time, I'm sure, this is something everyone including you would disapprove of.
The desire to acquire excessive wealth and materialistic possessions has been the root of all progress of mankind. It is a virtue and everyone should practice it, in my opinion. Everyone should have the excessive desire to acquire excessive wealth and they should work for it. This system will ensure our (the mankind, as a whole)'s progress.
It is only harmful when someone
directly competes for the resources of others. What I mean to say is, take the example of a person. He has a friend who has more wealth than him. He becomes greedy of his friend's wealth.
Now, this can be expressed in two ways. First: Due to this desire, he can set his mind to be more wealthy than his friend. By doing so, he will have to do better in business and/or his job. Or he will have to look for other better opportunities which may feed his desire. Second: He becomes jealous of his friend and makes a plot to grab his wealth by some means.
The first one is a virtue, is good, and is something which has caused the human race to progress this far. The second one is not good and often backfires.
I hope I'm clear.