getting what you want

If I search for "get rich quick" I get thousands of pictures!  In fact a lot of the world seems to be based on the idea of getting what you want, without worrying about what it means for other people.  It might be the gangs at war with each other and incidentally making life miserable and dangerous for everyone around them.  It could just as easily be a Board of Directors who want to make the biggest profit and don't care whether the people who work in their company can afford to buy houses or send their children to school.

Our collection of wise sayings has an awesome description of how people think in these situations:
"if men entice you, do not give in to them.
If they say, “Come along with us;
let’s lie in wait for innocent blood,
let’s ambush some harmless soul;
let’s swallow them alive, like the grave,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
we will get all sorts of valuable things
and fill our houses with plunder;
cast lots with us;
we will all share the loot”

Then comes the advice ...
"do not go along with them,
do not set foot on their paths;
for their feet rush into evil,
they are swift to shed blood."

But then a description of what it ends up being like on the inside:
"These men lie in wait for their own blood;
they ambush only themselves!
Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;
it takes away the life of those who get it."

Isn't that an incredible insight.  People who don't care about what they do to other people end up hurting themselves.  They might get rich, but they won't get life.

So I ask myself:
Who do I go along with?
What do I go after?