Negative Effects Of Greed In Society

Greed is the desire for material wealth, or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. For

Greed: the intense and selfish desire for something, greed is something that can control someone's actions or personality. In the story “The Crucibles” Rev Parris let his greed take over his mind and other choices during this period of time.

Greed is undeniably a characteristic of being human. Even two hundred thousand years ago, when the first examples of modern humans were in a competition for food and survival, they naturally had to be greedy in order to survive and contribute to the gene pool in order for further generations to evolve and adapt. Darwin proved this with his theory of evolution stating that the species that are better adapted to the environment would be able to spend less time looking for food and more time mating (contributing to the gene pool), while the species who are not as well adapted would die off. The play “Macbeth” and the motion picture based on the book “A Simple Plan” display these themes of greed profusely as the main characters from each are affected by the same characteristic that had previously allowed for human survival. Macbeth in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Hank in the film “A Simple Plan” are both affected by greed as they both turn into murders who backstab their friends, they both ruin their relationship with their wives, and they both end up destroying their lives.

Money— sweeter than honey but oh so destructive. It facilitates a man’s life, while a lack of it imprisons him in the streets of penury. It raises his social status, while an absence of it leaves him unnoticed. It gives him an aura of superiority and importance among others, while a deficiency of it makes him worthless in society’s eyes. Considering these two roads, most do not take more than a second to decide to chase riches.

Greed in society has overpowered everything, meaning that once individuals attain one goal, another one can always be found to take its place. Of course, it isn’t always a bad thing to want to continue to improve oneself or better a life, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

The allure of precious metals and the shimmer of precious stones versus the blandness of the essential concepts of life: food, water and shelter, can be a difficult choice for some people. The hypothetical line between what is a need versus a want splits society tenfold, and is a major problem in world civilization today. The choices humans make on a daily basis determine the futures of thousands, so what are the choices in life that are driven by needs and wants? The choices that define needs and wants are greed, the desire to pursue wealth, and the desire to protect one’s self.

One of the people’s traits affected by human nature in many stories is greed. As shown throughout, greed is an evil sin. This

“An incentive is a bullet, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change anything”(Levitt 20). What professor Steven D. Levitt (a professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s dictum here is that the incentive has a lot of power in this world). And that the metaphor of comparing “incentives”to a bullet really speaks wonders to their strengths. They can change almost any situation by motivating someone to do something in a business situation, all the way to education fields. After many years of college, business and economics students are being taught how to be greedy in college. It is only a matter of time before greed is too powerful. Incentives and greed both have favorable and critical effects on individuals and the populace, but when connected together both can have dangerous effects on future selections.

The article by Thomas Cassidy, points out the instrumental role that greed plays in the modern corporation. Modern Economists have always seen greed as not only a necessary element in the corporate environment, but as also a vital part of the successful evolution of a public company. As the article points out, “Economists from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman have seen greed as an inevitable and, in some ways, desirable feature of capitalism. In a well regulated and well balanced economy, greed helps to keep the system expanding”.

Furthermore, I believe that selfishness and greed run back all the way from the beginning of mankind to contemporary society. Selfishness is learned, even a

Greed is what drives everything in society, whether that be thousands of years ago or today. The reason we have advancements in our world is greed. People want to live forever, have a legacy that lives forever, or they want to have the most money. People have a natural desire to have the most stuff, whether that be money or physical good, and they will go to the ends of the earth to get it. And because this is human nature, unfortunately, it isn’t stopping anytime soon.

As Austrian writer Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote,“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.” History and literature have established that the ideal goal every American has wanted is for his thirst for material possessions to be reached, but even then, the individual isn’t truly happy. Money, and the things it can get you, have long been a part of American culture and the materialist culture of society have been examined in numerous ways from novels to the art of those like Andy Warhol. A life free from the economic woes that plague almost everyone seems like the quintessential existence, but material wealth is not a way to mend issues.

One of the most treacherous qualities that mankind contains is greed. Greed often consumes men into choosing the wrong path which leads to

What drives someone to feel greed? Mathilde, a beautiful, young French woman, always believed she belonged somewhere else. She felt she should be experiencing the finer things in life. This desire to have more and be more drove her and her husband to a place of despair. In Guy de Maupassant’s tale The Necklace greed and selfish desire forced Mathilde deeper into the lifestyle she desperately wanted to escape.

Fear is a poor motivator for virtue, but an excellent one for greed. Sometimes, greed is simply a desire to have so much that we can't possibly run out.