Greed Quotes in Cloud Atlas

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

[Hae-Joo] directed the taxi via the Memorial to the Fallen Plutocrats [...] (5.1.297)

In case you're unfamiliar with the word, a plutocrat is someone with buckets of money. Corpocracy has taken such a hold that the poor, fallen rich people are given a memorial. Note—they haven't done anything for society, like other people commemorated with statues, such as war veterans; they just had gobs of cash. Excuse us while we don't shed any tears.

Quote #5

How the consumers seethed to buy, buy, buy! Purebloods, it seemed, were a sponge of demand that sucked goods and services from every vendor, dinery, bar, shop, and nook. (5.1.302)

This line reminds us of Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market." Consumers are hungry to go buy, buy, buy. Rampant consumerism, buying for the sake of buying, is sucking, sucking, sucking any sort of intrinsic self-worth from this society.

Quote #6

Under the Enrichment Statues, consumers have to spend a fixed quota of dollars each month, depending on their strata. Hoarding is an anti-corpocratic crime. (5.1.303)

The corpocratic government demands that consumers spend so much money a month. How would you feel if you were required to spend a certain amount of your money per month? Who would this spending benefit most?