When a guy who is making $70,000 a year wants to increase his income to $100,000 per year, that is NOT greed. The reason is simple. That extra $30,000 per year has a noticible effect upon his standard of living, getting his family things that are useful, such as college funds, cars, etc.

Now, when a guy who is making $70,000,000 a year wants to increase his income to $100,000,000 per year, that IS greed. There is simply no possible way that the $30,000,000 per year will increase his standard of living in any noticible way. There is nothing that he could possibly need that that extra $30,000,000 could buy. But he wants that extra $30,000,000 just as much, and likely more than the first guy wants the extra $30,000.

When you are running a major oil company and see a chance to give yourself a bonus by boosting profits by nefarious means (such as shutting off the Alaska pipeline), you don't hesitate an instant. You know that your company will make more money selling less oil, and you keep the unsold oil for future sale at even higher prices. It is an all-around win for both you and the company. The company gets billions of dollars in extra profit, and you get your $30,000,000 per year salary increase. Then you can go out and buy lots more expensive stuff that you will never use. This is what happens in totally unregulated capitalism.