The 48 Laws of Power

Many of the plans and schemes referenced in Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power involve ways to make money. Greene references money to show how, while material resources are an essential part of maintaining power, short-term goals like money can also blind people to the true machinations of power. Money often plays a particular role in the stories of con artists, whom Greene frequently cites as positive examples of people who understand how power works. The con artist Victor Lustig, for example, was able to scam $5,000 dollars out of the notorious criminal Al Capone, all because he showed restraint and read the situation well. Lustig had the opportunity to run off with as much as $50,000 of Capone’s money, a decision that probably would have ended very badly. Instead, Lustig acted honestly with money he borrowed from Capone, earning his trust and getting Capone to gift Lustig $5,000. The moral of the story is to stick to a plan and to know how to deceive people by winning their trust.

The prospect of obtaining a big payday can make people irrational, as Lustig showed on a different occasion when he managed to sell a man the Eiffel Tower, despite having no authority to actually do so. Con artist Joseph “the Yellow Kid” Weil organized a similar deception when he managed to entice a mark with a real estate offer, only to pull off a more elaborate con that involved an illegal boxing match. As Greene observes in these stories, people often overestimate their own intelligence, and when presented with a chance to make money, they tend to overlook the potential hazards. And so, ultimately, while Greene’s book is about acting in one’s own self-interest, it is not about greed. In fact, it depicts the dangers of greed, demonstrating how becoming too single-minded in the pursuit of money or some other selfish interest can be counterproductive to a larger strategy of achieving power.