If life's main drive is need, greed is the disease to need like morbid-obesity is to the body. We over-eat, we over-indulge and we do not know when to stop. We would (and we do) kill others to feed this avaricious ill.
I met Ted Wheelwright only twice, in the early 70s, and although I did not have a full grasp of his work and influence then, I could not have agreed more with many of his views. I did work briefly on one of his projects...
Of course in the same way we have lost the battle against obesity — despite the "Norm" campaigns created by an over-sized Phillip Adams (who has downsized since) later on — Ted, despite his formidable intellect and highly respected professorship at Sydney Uni, molding a many young mind with rectitude against the excesses of unbridled capitalism, lost the battle against greed...
So we live with this diseases, hemmed in somewhat with pills and potions of this and that — regulations and game rules — that are as efficient as having another snack, while our fat tummy fold is drooping on our knees.
Do we we consume the sauce!
And if our heart shows signs of wearing out, we take more "slimming" anti-cholesterol pills while we stuff our face with fat bacon and lard.
And our governments and regulators encourage us to do so —stuff our face — because the more we consume, the more they themselves collect along the way, by taxes and tollways, and by selling new snake oil potions and pills made of straw. This reminds me of Jim Milner — the sharp Soul-Pattinson head honcho for many years — who used to give clay pills to the Japanese soldiers guarding his prison to "cure" their bout of clap. Even as a placibo, it did not work, except it stopped him being shot.
Ted, may you rest in peace. I know you will. I cannot say that for the rest of the world, a world that will get fatter... a world that has a bi-polar stock market on top of fat-clogged arteries and a peanut brain for president...