Economics is the motivation for nearly all decisions, conscious and subconscious. I pursued the most attractive and temperamentally agreeable woman I could because of "greed". The economics is presumably that her traits are advantageous. None of that was really conscious to me; as I'm merely attracted to what I'm attracted to, and we're motivated to act toward things that are in our interest.
So it's not surprising that economics is the motivating factor behind most anything. It's a much better reason for action than other motivators, such as racism.
Quote:
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Do you want to know the cause of war? It is capitalism,greed,the dirty hunger for dollars.Take away the capitalist and you sweep war from the earth.
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War exists in single-celled organisms and transcends every living system. Native Americans had tribal war even though their society least resembled capitalism.
Capitalism is a tool; it's neither good nor evil. It can be used for great good or it can be used for great evil. It just so happens to be a better tool than the alternatives for spreading liberty and prosperity to all despite the unequal distribution of wealth.
Whoever is credited with that phrase is supremely ignorant to the human condition, because capitalism isn't responsible for human greed and propensity for malevolence, it's actually a feature of humanity that then uses tools like capitalism in abusive ways. Eliminate capitalism and you haven't removed even the tiniest portion of the problem, only that particular instrument to inflict abuse.