All I see is unrestrained greed. Rampant and unrelenting greed. Republicans in Congress are working, literally day and night, to pass a massive tax cut to the richest people in the world. Another tax cut. They don’t need it. It won’t help anything. In fact, it will make things worse. But it’s all they can think about, throwing another penny on the pile. In order to pay for it, they see no option but to gut the social safety net.

As a direct result of the privileged class’s previous greedy moves, many Americans rely on the social safety net to survive. So here’s the question. If the richest people cut the social safety net and many Americans rely on the social safety net to survive, what happens to those who rely upon it once it’s gone? What does it say about a person who genuinely doesn’t give two figs about starving someone to death, so long as they gain another penny?

The ancient Greeks had an allegory for this about a king named Midas. You’ve heard of him, I’m sure. He’s the model for the term, ‘The Midas Touch.’ What most people know of that story is that everything he touched turned to gold. Many people think that would be a pretty great deal. These days, The Midas Touch is often used as a kind of a compliment for people who make piles and piles of money. We say it about the obscenely rich. “That guy has the Midas Touch.”

But it wasn’t a compliment in ancient Greece. It was a warning. You see, King Midas was a man born to great wealth and comfort, yet consumed by greed. It didn’t matter how much he had, he wanted more. One day, Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, and his friend, a satyr named Silenus, were traveling through Midas’ kingdom. They got separated and Silenus decided to take a nap in Midas’ rose garden. Midas found Silenus there, recognized him, and invited him in and treated him well before taking him back to Dionysus.

As a reward for his kindness, the god told Midas he would grant him any wish. Midas knew what he wanted. He wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. The god suggested Midas think a little more about the wish, but that was the wish he wanted, so Dionysus granted it. It sounds great, right? Midas woke up the next morning and touched his bedside table and the table instantly turned into solid gold! Midas was exhilarated and started touching everything he could see. Everything he touched turned to gold. What a lucky man.

Or was he? The part of the tale we’ve just seen is pretty much all people remember about Midas and they don’t think any more about it. But they should. Midas had a lovely morning, running around touching things, turning them to gold. His greed was in overdrive. His avarice ran rampant. But after a couple of hours of turning things to gold, Midas began to feel a bit peckish.

He went to his dining table where he saw a rose. He picked it up to enjoy it’s fragrance – but it turned to gold. No scent. “I’ll have to enjoy the scent of flowers without touching them,” he thought. Then he reached for a grape. It, too, turned to gold. Uh-oh! He tried a slice of bread with the same result. Gold. Even the water he attempted to drink turned to gold. Suddenly, the “gift” which had been bestowed upon him began to frighten him. How could he eat if his food turned into gold? One cannot survive eating gold. As he began to understand his problem, his beloved daughter came into the room and when Midas hugged her, she became a golden statue.

Midas now understood that his endless greed was a curse, not a blessing. He begged Dionysus to remove the curse. Dionysus told him to wash his hands in a particular river and, when he did, everything Midas had touched returned to it’s original state. Midas hugged his daughter again and realized his avarice had nearly destroyed him. He became a very generous and grateful person and led his kingdom into a new age of prosperity for all.

Midas had the opportunity to learn from his mistake and make life better for everyone. Like any good story of redemption, that’s what he did. But today, people have lost sight of the parts of the allegory that teach the lesson. We stop at “everything he touches turns to gold” and leave it at that, as though that’s enough, and it’s a good thing. The people who hoard the wealth like to spread the idea that they amassed that wealth because they’re blessed. God wants them to have it. Outside of entertainment, one rarely sees any great fortune that was acquired or maintained by means God would approve.

Oh, yeah. God. Jesus meant what he said when he said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” That’s pretty clear admonishment that the accumulation of wealth hurts one’s chances of getting into Heaven. So greedy people made up a story. “The Needle,” they claimed, ” is a small gate at the back of a walled city a laden camel could not pass through.” That’s not true. No such “small gates” exist. Jesus meant an actual camel and he meant an actual needle’s eye. He was saying, flatly, rich people don’t go to Heaven.

The United States of America is said to be the wealthiest country on Earth. But like all things wealth-related, that’s something of a lie. The US has the richest rich people and that pulls up the average. The rest of us? WE struggle with a lower quality of life than most of the developed world. And now? The richest people want even more – and they don’t CARE how it affects the world around them.

Had Midas not learned a lesson and changed his ways, his kingdom would have been doomed by greed. Today’s One Percent do not seem inclined to learn any lessons or change their ways. It’s as if they turned their own children into gold – then just kept touching more and more and more anyway. The children, THEIR children, are not relevant. Only the gold matters.

When an entire society becomes enthralled by the madness of greed, we don’t prosper. We suffer. When the only “acceptable” pursuit in a society is the pursuit of more money, we pay a price. An incalculable price. Neil Young wrote it into a song years ago, “They ‘give’ you this, but you pay for that.”

In the story of Midas’ Touch, one man stood to become inconceivably wealthy while the rest of his world suffered his greed. In the US, today, an incredibly small number of people, comparatively, will enjoy the wealth. Everyone else will suffer. Today, the United States is consumed by the Midas touch, but the Midas touch is the madness of greed. Greed for greed’s sake. Greed to the exclusion of all else. Greed to the point of destruction.

It’s greed so deeply entrenched, leaving people starving in the streets just so the wealthy can have a little bit more isn’t just acceptable. It’s the point. Apparently, it helps to pretend the victims of the avarice are at fault. “You’re poor because you’re lazy.” “You’re poor because you don’t manage your money well.” “You’re poor because God wants you to be poor.”

None of that is correct. The victims of the money grab are poor because they’re the victims of the money grab. And now, the masses are to be victimized again and even more, to satisfy the greed of an obscenely rich few. The United States of America certainly has the Midas Touch these days. One can only hope we realize the error of our ways before it’s too late. But I don’t see any evidence of that. All I see is greed. Unbridled, uncontrolled, unconstrained greed. The US has allowed itself to become mired in the madness of greed and it’s rapidly becoming greed to the point of destruction…