I totally agree that this quote is almost too economic for its own good and that as a consequence, overexposure has brought it to the threshold of fatal banality.
However, OP didn't misapply it in this case. Rather, it looks like you may be making the very same point with plain language that the quote makes with sarcastic irony.
The eye-rolling banality is _exactly_ what I was aiming for.
"People prioritise greed over ethical behaviour, news at 11..."
The fact that people seem bemused by this in 2019, when it was banal and commonplace enough to be "sound bite worthy" back in the the 1940s, is where I was coming from. I have no doubt a scholar of classical language could trump me with an equally appropriate Latin or ancient Greek quote with a similar complaint.
People gonna peep. Given a choice between piles of money, and not fucking some other people over, those piles of money win _way_ way too often.
However, OP didn't misapply it in this case. Rather, it looks like you may be making the very same point with plain language that the quote makes with sarcastic irony.