Greed is the truest poverty, and contentment is the truest wealth.

The topic I want to talk about today is "Most people die of greed", and the first topic is luxury goods. When it comes to luxury goods, many people stare. Why are you staring? Just because it's too expensive. I went to the International Trade Center yesterday, took a casual look and wrote down some things. I want to read them here: a skirt,12800; A pair of leather shoes, 9000; Such a big bag, twelve thousand; A pair of socks. Sometimes I wonder, why do you think a person should wear 560 socks? What's the difference between 560 socks and 5 yuan socks? Can you grow an extra toe on your foot? If skirts and shoes are thick-skinned, it can be said that there are some intellectual factors, which are designed by designers. They are beautiful, novel, fresh and moving, but as far as I know, socks, from blacks in West Africa to Indians in North America, are all wearing the same style. It is simply a job to screw two holes in such a tube and heel. But why is it so expensive? For 560 yuan, you can buy half a ton of rice and a car full of tofu. You won't grow six fingers if you wear it. You said you sold it so expensive. What is the reason?

Of course, this is only the smallest luxury. More expensive than anywhere else. Friends who have read the book Cherry in the Garden of Eden know that I have listed many luxuries in the book, including a Bentley, 1 1.88 million, a Patek Philippe watch, 90 million and a Cartier snake jewelry necklace, 67 million. What is abnormal is a pair of underwear designed by an American designer named Winston in 2000. It is full of jewels and diamonds, and it is worth 65.438+0.5 million US dollars, which is/kloc-0.20 billion RMB. Even more abnormal is the yacht of the former Greek ship king. This yacht is called Christina. There is a bar on this yacht, a high stool in the bar. Guess what skin it is? This is the foreskin of whale penis, which is said to feel as soft as melted butter. To be honest, every time I think about this thing, I always feel strange. We know that the stool is sitting on the bottom, and jeans and old cotton trousers are separated in the middle. Noble people wear thin clothes, even a piece of silk. Do you think you need to be so soft? Are these rich people supernatural beings, sitting with their faces on stools?

And that jacket, a jacket for dogs. I saw it with my own eyes in Shanghai Jiuguang Department Store. It's so big and made of cloth, and the price is 2995. 2995。 The words in the book are true. I pretended to buy it when I went to the counter to inquire. The salesgirl said, sir, if you want to buy at least four pieces, your dog must be changed. How much are four pieces? Twelve thousand. It was really hard at the time. There is a swearing saying in China that "pigs and dogs are not as good as dogs". Now that I'm standing here, pigs dare not say that dogs are definitely not as good as dogs.

Here are two short stories, one from my own experience and the other from a book. My personal experience is that in Chongqing, a pension stick is a migrant worker who helps people move things and carry luggage. We were shopping in Jie Fangbei that day, and he followed us all the time, limping. Maybe he wanted to help us move after we bought something, but we never bought it. When it was getting dark, he finally spoke, called my boss and said, boss, can I have some money? Not much, just a dime. I asked him what happened. He said that he broke his leg moving goods yesterday. Today, he turned around all day, and his leg hurt badly. He asked us for a dime, because with this dime, he could buy a pack of pain-relieving powder to eat.

The second story was told by a friend and written in this book, but it is slightly different from the fact. It is about a laid-off female worker in a city in the north, who is divorced and lives alone with her seven-year-old daughter. Before Children's Day, my daughter asked her: Mom, will you give me ten yuan? She has no money either. I don't know. The daughter asked again, will you give me five dollars? She still can't see it. The daughter continued to ask, will you give me two dollars? Children's Day is celebrated in other people's homes, and I want to celebrate Children's Day. She searched all her pockets, but couldn't find two dollars. In desperation, she slapped the little girl and the little girl ran away crying. The laid-off woman worker thought about it alone at night, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt that there was no way out, so she jumped off the building that day.

Very unpleasant, isn't it? But this is our world, a real world. Most of us sitting here today are ordinary people, standing in the middle. On our left, there are11880,000 cars, 90 million watches,10.2 billion underwear, and a dog wearing 3,000 jackets. On our right, there are poor old migrant workers and poor little girls. She lost her only family because of two dollars. This is our world, a real world.

And the question is: Why are there such things in this world? A pair of shoes here is bigger than a life there, and the light in one night here is bigger than all the lives there? We often say that this is a civilized world, and in such a civilized world, why are there such crazy and absurd things? 1 1.88 million cars, 90 million watches, 1 billion underwear, these things will always be millions, millions and billions. Why do people call it fashionable, noble or even noble, rather than crazy or evil?

All waste is a waste of time. Similarly, all luxury goods are luxury goods of time. So in the book Cherry in Eden, I turned all these luxuries into time. Spice girl Victoria bought Beckham perfume worth 30,000 pounds, or 400,000 RMB. If it is used to pay the water bill, it can be used for a family of three for 300 years. The watch in the hand of Russian President Vladimir Putin is not water this time, but oil. Switching to cooking oil can make a family stutter for 870 years. An Armani T-shirt, 43% cotton, 57% blended material, sounds ordinary, but a pencil is enough for one child 1000. That car, worth 4,800 years, and that famous abnormal underwear, worth 48,000 years, were not bought by six China farmers in Hemudu period until June 2005 165438+ 10/6.

Yes, that's what I want to say: longevity. But this is not their own life, but the life of all of us. Time is about to stop, which I will talk about later. Then the next topic is: greed

I really want to write these two words on the upstairs of the Empire State Building, in the center of Tiananmen Square, on the walls of all palaces, temples and churches, with bright red blood, greed! Even with my own blood. Of course not too much, 400CC, I am in good health.

During the French Revolution, before being hanged, a madame roland famously said: Freedom, how many crimes have been committed in your name! So now we can also say: greed, how much virtue has been done in your name!

In our human values, greed has never been accused. Russell, a great British philosopher, once said that there are several kinds of driving forces that drive the world to run: possessiveness, power desire and creativity desire, among which possessiveness, that is, greed, ranks first. Adam Smith put it more thoroughly: it is not love that drives the world around (in this day and age, I always feel desperate every time I mention the word love), but money, so greed is essentially a kind of goodness. As we all know, Adam Smith is the founder of modern economics, and his The Wealth of Nations has influenced almost all economists so far. No one in Li Yining, Wu Jinglian and Zhang Wuchang, including Greenspan, dares to admit that he hasn't read Adam Smith. We can even say that this is Adam Smith's world.

Adam Smith's world is a world without love, only with money, a world with greed as the top, and a world ruled by robbers. We are in a bookstore now. You can go out and have a look later. Almost every inspirational book, economics and ethics book is advocating greed. There are several big words hidden between the lines of every page, bloody big words: more fishing, more taking, more robbing! As we all know, this comes at a price. The price is the abject poverty of some people, the suffering of some people and the death of some people. The price is that the poor old stick begged a dime from the roadside to buy a pack of painkillers. The price is the poor little girl: Mom, can you give me two dollars? Other children celebrate Children's Day, and I also want to celebrate Children's Day.

This is the force of human civilization, greed. Yes, there is no Rome without greed. But let's look at greed, that is, what is behind the brilliant human civilization. In A.D. 1498, da Gama crossed the Cape of Good Hope, which opened a new era in human history. We have learned this in the history of the world, and people praised his great adventure and his valuable spirit of daring to explore, almost catching up with Theory of Three Represents's theory. Of course, Theory of Three Represents is really good, which is different from Da Gama. This great adventure brought two consequences at the same time. The first is syphilis. /kloc-mei disease in the 0/5th century is different from what we usually see on telephone poles. It was an incurable disease at that time. Da Gama took it to Calcutta. This thing can run without legs. After more than ten years, it spread to China and Japan, and then to Russia. A famous revolutionary leader died as a result. At least tens of thousands of people died of syphilis in Calcutta. Schopenhauer, a German philosopher, believes that syphilis is inseparable from western civilization, and he himself died of syphilis. So we can say with a wry smile: in fact, before Mr. De and Mr. Sai arrived, Mr. Syphilis had already told us what western civilization was. 19 19 after the may 4th movement, scholars in China often debated a question: should we totally westernize? I have an understanding of this: syphilis is also one of the contents of westernization. If you want to westernize completely, you'd better try syphilis first.

As we all know, the second thing Degamas brought is stocks. Those adventurers in the era of great navigation can bring back countless gold ivory and beautiful female slaves when they go to sea. There are many benefits, but there are also great risks. When the boat capsized, there was no bottom at once. At that time, Europeans were superstitious, saying that the holy sesame oil in the church could calm the storm when it was used for prayer. This thing sounds amazing and unreliable, so they started to engage in stocks. This is how the modern enterprise mechanism came into being. I believe that most of the people present here work in the company. When you mention the word "company" in the future and say that "such a company is so beautiful", you might as well think about Da Gama, his achievements and his syphilis. This also shows that even the greatest innovation in human history is not out of goodwill, it is all about making money.

There is a greater one. Columbus discovered the new continent. This Columbus is a real money fan, a real official fan and a real philistine. I have no knowledge at all, and I am good at bargaining. He has a saying that gold can make people's souls ascend to heaven. So he went to the United States, not to "expand the living space of mankind", but to seek gold. Before he discovered America, there were about 30 million Indians in the New World. We all know Maya civilization, Inca civilization and Aztec civilization, which are three famous civilizations in America and also very remarkable civilizations. He landed in America on 1492. By the end of 16, that is to say, in less than a hundred years, how many of the original 30 million Indians are left? One million. It is equivalent to 60% of the deaths in World War II. But as we all know, tanks and artillery were used in World War II. The colonists had watermelon knives in their hands. So what do they use? Smallpox. They gave the blankets of smallpox patients to the Indians, and then the plague spread. One village died, one city died, one country died, all three civilizations were destroyed, and 29 million people died cleanly. How much has the population of Jamaica and several other Central and South American islands dropped from 1 10,000 in just a few decades after the colonist Santo Domingo landed? 500 people. I remind you of the name of this colonist. His name is Saint. Domingo, saint, saint. A saint who killed a million people. Curtis, another colonist, described this situation this way: If you don't put your boots on the red man, you can't walk. Can you imagine the sight of bodies everywhere?

Need I say more? Tell me about slaves? Without the evil slave trade, the prosperity of the world would be halved. I guarantee that 100% of what I said is correct. Don't think that the slave trade has become history and will never happen again. According to a document in my hand, until 200 1 year, a motorized sailboat flying the Nigerian flag, named Etillo, was accused of throwing 250 children into the sea in the sea between Gabon and Benin. It is said that there is only one reason: the quantity of goods exceeds the order requirements. These 250 children, the oldest 17 years old, the youngest is only 3 years old. This is the extraordinary 2 1 century of civilization.

In my opinion, except for artistic and scientific discoveries, everything else in human history is murder and robbery, but in human books, they are all called great civilizations. That's why I wrote this sentence: What is greatness? Great intention is to kill people. The more you kill, the greater you become. For example, the great Genghis Khan, the great Battle of Stalingrad, and the great ... also verified rostain's famous saying: If you kill a person, you are the murderer. Kill millions of people and you become a conqueror. Great conqueror. Such conquerors abound in the history of mankind, Norman the Conqueror, the ancestor of the British, Maha the Conqueror, Genghis Khan the Conqueror, and Cortes, the conqueror who trampled on the red man's body with his boots. He made great achievements in Mexico. In less than ten years, a * * * killed about1850,000 people.

Why? For gold, of course. Behind every piece of gold, there are overlapping heads.

Recall Adam Smith's words: it is not love that drives the world, but money. I'm sure you will agree. As for his next conclusion: greed is a kind of goodness. Depends on what you think. As I said just now, greed built Rome. Not only that, greed paved the way, built high-rise buildings, invented cars, airplanes, air conditioners, televisions, cannons, tanks and depleted uranium bombs ... All the prosperity in this world is related to human greed. Because human beings always want to live a better, more comfortable and more convenient life, the world is becoming more and more prosperous.

So greed is good. People are not greedy, then you have to be hot in summer and frozen in winter. But in fact, if there were not so many air conditioners and warm winds, the summer on earth would not be so hot. This summer didn't last long, and I believe everyone still remembers it. What's the feeling of sauna days? We can't blame Spain and Portugal for this. We made it ourselves.

There are some Qing Dynasty dramas on TV now. Qianlong, Kangxi, who is who? Emperor Qianlong especially likes to go to Ningbo, probably to eat seafood. Every time I eat, I have to walk for months, and it is difficult to take a hot bath. Princess Wencheng went to Tibet, starting from Xi 'an, which lasted for three years. How's it going now? I flew from Lhasa to Beijing a few days ago, just over two hours. I drank a cup of coffee, ate a portion of rice and took a nap. I am very comfortable.

Therefore, greed is good. In fact, Princess Wencheng's energy consumption and polluted environment in three years are not as good as mine in two hours. It's true. Think about it, how much fuel does it take for such a big plane and such a big iron guy to fly in the sky for so long? And those flatbeds and boarding bridges, how much manpower and material resources do you have to spend?

So I said, as a modern person, we are all extremely happy. Materially, we are much happier than any previous emperor. Of course, some friends like to wrangle, saying that the emperor has seventy-two concubines in three palaces and six courtyards and three thousand beauties in the harem. God, I don't know. How can I be happier than him? Well, I think you should go home and ask your wife and see what she says. If you don't have a wife, ask your girlfriend. If you don't even have a girlfriend, I think I'd better forget it. You don't even have a girlfriend. Do not ask questions.

Happy modern life, we sleep in Simmons, sit in a spring chair, blow air conditioning in summer, turn on heating in winter, go out by plane and car, and enter the TV refrigerator. How happy we are. This is what I want to say: happiness means death. The faster you live, the faster you die. This sentence itself constitutes a truth.

This is the third proposition we are going to talk about today: greed destroys mankind. Sometimes I think, if there is a God, then God must think the world is too beautiful, so he created people. And since there are people, the world is getting worse every day. I am sure that mankind will not live for 3000 years. There is a saying in the Bible that the world has been corrupted and all flesh has fallen into sin. Then he sent a big flood and drowned all the creatures except Noah. I don't believe in Christ, but my view of the world is basically similar to that of the Bible. The world has indeed fallen. From here, from our hearts, to our bodies and emotions, to the whole society, to the whole world, to outer space, corruption has become uncontrollable. We don't even need a flood. We can destroy ourselves. And this world, we can ruin it.

Look at those forests. As we all know, green plants are the lungs of the earth. Here, now this lung is dying. According to statistics, the forest area on the earth is reduced by more than160,000 hectares every year, and this number is still growing. 160,000 hectares160,000 square kilometers, which is almost equivalent to two Koreas, seven Luxemburg, 145 Hong Kong and seven thousand Macao. According to Greenpeace's estimation, according to the current population growth rate and wood demand, the forest area on the earth will be reduced by 40% around 2040. At that time, all of us here should still be alive, but we have already begun to taste the consequences. By 2 100, we have basically completely removed this lung. All the forests have been exhausted. At that time, the world was like this: there were sandstorms every day, all rivers dried up, all cultivated land became Gobi or desert, 90% of land creatures died, and only lizards, snakes and mice were still alive. As for humans, I don't know. What if we evolve into gods again?

The story in the book is true, about the wooden floor. I've always wondered, why do you think people install wooden floors? The floor is for stepping, sitting, stepping, not kissing. Why should we be so picky about it? Outside a home improvement market in Shanghai, I worked as a media for a while and had a press card. I used this press card to ask those who bought wooden floors and asked nine people: Why did you install wooden floors? There are two people who have their own reasons. One said that the wooden floor was beautiful, one said that it was easy to take care of, and the other seven were a little dumbfounded: Why? Never thought about it. Everyone else is pretending, so am I. What kind of problem does this show? And even if we don't use wooden floors now and don't cut down trees from now on, the situation is terrible. It's time for people to settle their past sins. According to the report of the United Nations Environment Programme, there are 654.38+37 million hectares of cultivated land in the world. Due to the continuous deterioration of the environment, 6 million hectares of land are now turned into desert or semi-desert every year. This number is still expanding.

65438+370 million ÷ 6 million ≈228.3

That is to say, by April 2233. There will be no arable land on the earth. There are 228 and 30 generations, that is, eight generations. The grandchildren of our generation are all ancestors here. At this time, we can think for them. What did they eat at that time? What to drink?

And water, clean water. Niu Sheng Mao, former Minister of Water Resources of China, has a saying: If water conservation and pollution control actions are not taken quickly, China will run out of clean drinking water within 30 years. In fact, this is about to become a reality. At present, more than 70% of rivers in China are polluted, and more than 90% of urban waters are polluted. You are all in Beijing, which is the capital. It will be better, but think about your relatives out of town. At present, 2 billion people in the world are short of drinking water, and more than 654.38 billion people drink polluted water. And the number of deaths caused by unsanitary drinking water is 20 million every year.

Imagine: 56000 a day, 2300 an hour, one minute 100. This is not a chicken farm, this is people.

And the ocean. According to the FAO report, the global marine fishery resources are facing a crisis of depletion. The fishing capacity of the Black Sea is 900,000 tons in 1986 and only 654.38+10,000 tons in 1996. The fishing grounds in Qingdao, Dalian and Zhoushan are better than this, but not much better. Dalian Bay: kelp rots a lot, shellfish die a lot and jellyfish disappear. Qingdao sea area: 1963 has 14 1 species of marine animals, and 1988 has only 24 species.

Zhoushan Fishing Ground: Fish resources are on the verge of exhaustion, and the output of large yellow croaker and small yellow croaker has dropped sharply, which has become the fishing season. Jellyfish are almost extinct.

With the increasingly serious marine pollution, there are more and more red tides. You must know what red tide is. A large area of rotten fish and shrimp, a large area of seawater pollution, in the middle, nothing can live except malignant algae. In Seto Inland Sea of Japan, it only appears once every few decades, with 1965 appearing 44 times and 1975 appearing more than 300 times. Now it has become a sea of blood. We say the Japanese are hateful. They are unlucky and deserve it. But we have the same problem ourselves. Since 1980, there have been more than 300 red tides in China's offshore waters, with a violent area of several thousand square kilometers and a duration of several tens of days. More than half of fish suffer from environmental diseases, and more than 40% of butterfly fish and flounder suffer from liver cancer. Even Antarctic penguins and polar bears have detected DDT. Can you imagine? There is also a population problem. In the year when Jesus was born, the world population was 200 million, and it was 500 million during the Renaissance. By the beginning of last century, there were about 1900,1600 million,19875 billion, 2000 65 billion, a net increase of 5 billion in just one hundred years. According to a report of the United Nations, if the fertility rate remains at the current level, that is, a woman has more than two children, the global population will reach 44 billion by 2 100, 244 billion by 2 150, and134 billion by 2300. This is great.