[MispelledToyota]

I think it's questionable whether top-down interventions could ever control the negative externalities associated with greed.

The upside of character is it is a bottom-up limitation on creating negative externalities, placed on those who are best placed and informed to avoid creating them.

Admittedly, this only goes so far. Another issue is that people are so often greedy for status. Being zero-sum, it is inherently a negative externality when one achieves a status increase.