What Greed Will Get You

I've often shared this story with friends and now decided to share it with you all.

The small town in which I grew up is home to roughly 8,500 individuals. About ten years ago, a factory closure dealt a major blow to employment, many familie's standard of living, and the general feeling of the town. So it was a breathe of fresh air when a large smelting and manufacuring company annouced their plans to build a hugh plant a few miles North of town and within a few years of opening employ up to 1,000 people.

This factory brings scrap and recycled metal by rail into the factory, smelts it, uses it to create engine blocks and other parts for large earth moving equipment. It might do other things but I don't know all the details since this has all happened since I've moved away.

Due to the size of the factory, some privately owned property needed to be purchased. The company offered better than fair market value and assisted with all aspects of moving the displaced familes. In a small town, you either treat the people nicely or you get a bad reputation from day one. And from the reports, they did it up right. The townsfolk were excited because of the number of employees, factory and office, that would soon be employed.

However, there was one guy who refused to sell. He knew that his proprty was nearly smack-dab in the middle of where they wanted to build. They needed his land. He was often heard in town bragging about how he's holding out because - of course - companies have large pockets and an extra $100,000 was nothing to them. This man was already known as "not very easy to get along with" and he did not win friends with his tactics; people wanted jobs and he was deliberately holding up the ground-breaking.

Of course, engineers and planners aren't stupid. They made him one last offer and when he turned it down cold they withdrew all offers and stopped talking with him. Since no ground had been broken, many aspects were still adjustable. Using the footprint of the ground they already owned, they moved the factory back a few hundred feet and adjusted the train tracks and driveway South. By doing these two things, they no longer needed his land.

I like to believe that in time everyone will get what they deserve. Call it Charma or just other people making sure that they eventually stick it to you. In this case, no one in town was bothered by the campanies final decision to simply build around his land. He still lives in the house and it is - at this point - considered unsellable.

Is there a moral to this story? I'm not entirely sure but if there is, it's that absolute greed will come back to get you in the end. Maybe also that when you think you have the upper hand, the other person will find away around you. And because this guy had a history with the citizens of the town, no one has lost any sleep over the matter. Except maybe him.