there are academic degrees and thermometer degrees and degrees of freedom and degrees of criminality

and to be degreed academically is to acquire the prestige of letters following your name

whereas to be degreed thermodynamically is to be subject to a certain amount of heat from the sun or lack of heat due to compressor activity in a walk-in cooler

and then from an engineering standpoint there are dimensional degrees of freedom found in a mechanical linkage or in musculoskeletal motion

but there is a sense in which “degreed” refers to none of these

but may refer peripherally to degrees of criminality…

can you see it?

see, in the single word “degreed,” the solution to many human problems?

here: take the word greed and append to it the prefix de-

degreed, verb transitive: to remove greed as a factor in persons or legislation or decisions

ah, but we cannot live without greed, proclaimed gordon gekko as brilliantly portrayed by Michael douglas in the 20th-century film wall street

sure we can, says minor poet gary “the tomatoman” bowers in this thing you are reading

and here is what he imagines: that we define greed as desire to acquire to the detriment of someone else

easy as that

and degreed will be to shift focus to benefit to all and not detriment to some

that’s not marxism, communism, socialism, nor globalism

it’s just decency and honesty, within which true capitalism can thrive and blossom

please try to prove me wrong, world

paradise will reward your efforts