In Thomas More's Utopia, Hythloday insists that traditional societies, such as the one in which More himself lived, were nothing more than conspiracies of the rich. Such societies, therefore, exist for the benefit of those with money and not for ordinary people as a whole. They are built upon a foundation of greed and acquisitiveness. The rich couldn't care less about the poor and spend most of their time thinking how best to increase their already enormous wealth at the expense of everyone else.

The greed of the rich and privileged filters down to the rest of the society, making ordinary men and women obsessed with the acquisition of private property of one sort of another. In due course, this becomes an immense source of pride, as people measure each other's worth by the things that they own rather than the contents of their character.

Thanks to customs and laws that have abolished private property, Utopia doesn't have this problem. As there is no private property, there is no greed; and as there is no greed, there is no pride. Instead of selfishly looking out for their own interests, everyone works together for the common good. Public welfare rather than private good is the most important principle in this ideal society.