We are told capitalism is wicked because it attracts the greedy. That charge quietly concedes something important: greed exists, it is permanent, and it does not require permission to appear. Capitalism does not invent it. It simply refuses to pretend it can be erased. Socialism, being more imaginative, proposes a cure. Instead of allowing greed to operate through voluntary exchange, competition, and the risk of failure, it relocates greed to the state. It places it behind desks, inside committees, and above the law, armed with moral language and freed from consent. Under capitalism, the greedy man must persuade others to part with their money. He must offer value, compete, and suffer loss if he fails. Under socialism, he need only persuade the planners. Once installed, he no longer serves consumers. He administers them. The claim is that this transformation, turning greed into authority somehow cleanses it. That taking becomes virtuous once renamed “allocation,” and coercion compassionate once labeled “public good.” It is an ambitious therapy: not to restrain vice, but to crown it; not to discipline human nature, but to grant it a monopoly; not to limit greed, but to free it from competition, accountability, and consent. History suggests greed does not vanish under socialism. It merely stops pretending to ask.