Want Versus Need
Why is humanity so greedy? The simple answer to that is the fact that we have the desire to provide for our family and ourselves. Greed usually has a bad connotation; it is not always an excessive reaction to an excessive problem. Taflinger says that Greed is necessary in our culture to a certain extent (“The Sociological Basis of Greed” 1). Every person needs some degree of greed to survive (“I Want It, I Want It Now” 1). Once we fulfill our basic needs, we search for a way to fulfill our wants. We have such a surplus of resources that often times our wants get confused as needs. When we can no longer satisfy the burning hunger of our wants, we become more and more greedy. We strive to fill the gaping hole inside us that soaks up everything it is fed. The fact that we have fought and worked our way to the top has given us a sense of entitlement to all of the things we want. We work hard because the media makes sure that we want all of the things that will help us reach the ultimate goal of living the American dream. However, the American dream is no longer an individual unique dream; everyone wants the same thing: wealth and power. John Steinbeck said, “It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men: kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest: sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the product of the second”. If we continue to possess an excessive greed, or in other words, work hard to become rich and buy our happiness, the inequity of our country and the detriment of our world wi...
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...and none of our riches, none of our wealth, and none of our Greed would have mattered.
The solution to our Greed is a simple concept; it is, however, a tough act to follow. If we make an effort to combine the ideas of living equally with humans and with nature, and diluting the concentration of wealth in the hands of few, we will be able to prosper and live a better quality of life. The inequality of our country and the detriment of our world will be everlasting if we do not take action. The consequences of our Greed are too big of a problem to ignore. Carter Roberts, the President of the nonprofit organization WWF®, told us that “It takes true leadership to set forth a modern conservation path — one that leads to a future in which economic development can occur without losing nature's value in the process.” It is possible, it will just take a little less avarice.
Greed Economics: The uplifting or debilitating effect of the excessive desire of gain on the production, consumption and distribution of goods and services.
As time passes, our population continues to increase and multiply; yet, on the other hand, our planet’s resources continue to decrease and deplete. As our population flourishes, human beings also increase their demands and clamor for the Earth’s natural products, yet are unable to sacrifice their surplus of the said resources. Garret Hardin’s work highlighted the reality that humans fail to remember that the Earth is finite and its resources are limited. Hardin’s article revealed that people are unable to fathom that we indeed have a moral obligation to our community and our natural habitat — that we are not our planet’s conquerors but its protectors. We fail to acknowledge and accept that we only have one Earth and that we must protect and treasure it at all costs. Despite all our attempts at annihilating the planet, the Earth will still be unrelenting — it will still continue to be present and powerful. Human beings must recognize that we need this planet more than it needs us and if we persist on being egocentric and covetous, in the end it is us who will
The Conservation movement was a driving force at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time during which Americans were coming to terms with their wasteful ways, and learning to conserve what they quickly realized to be limited resources. In the article from the Ladies’ Home Journal, the author points out that in times past, Americans took advantage of what they thought of as inexhaustible resources. For example, "if they wanted lumber for their houses, rails for their fences, fuel for their stoves, they would cut down half a forest at a time; and whatever they could not use or sell they would leave to rot on the ground. They never bothered their heads to inquire where more wood was coming from when this was gone" (33). The twentieth century opened with a vision towards the future, towards preserving the land that had previously been taken for granted. The Conservation movement came along around the same time as one of the first major waves of the feminist movement. With the two struggles going on: one for the freedom of nature and the other for the freedom of women, it stands to follow that they coincided. As homemakers, activists, and citizens of the United States of America, women have had an important role in Conservation.
Selfish desires have developed into a social norm in the United States. The U.S as of now is based on capitalism. Capitalism correlates around an economic and
The world is facing issues of overwhelming complexity and urgency. The challenge is to think globally and develop policies to counteract environmental decline and environmental collapse. Brown illustrates the economic future through an environmental perspective to develop a plan that will sustain civilization. Throughout the book, he concentrates on four major components that will head the world towards a brighter future. These include a massive cut in global carbon emissions, the stabilization of world population, the decrease of poverty, and the restoration of our planet’s diverse natural landscape. Brown presents the reader with very accurate arguments in World on the Edge however; he also makes some weak points that may not be the best plan to save the planet.
According to religious beliefs, greed in one of the seven deadly sins. But there are people who believes that greed is good. Starting from Donald Trump to Novel Prize Winning Economist Milton Friedman share the same views. There are incentives if you are greedy, such that it forces you to thrive for success, which results to innovation. Donald Trump recently stated, “I’m very greedy…And greedy for the United States”. Andrew Weil, a physician featured in Time’s Magazine stated, “Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist”. But I was not convinced with these statements. Hence, I started doing research to decipher
In todays world we sometimes see greed and incentives in two very different ways. This was even a problem that people thought about in the 1770’s with Adam Smith. He had many different thoughts on the two words, and how they affected human nature. Non-the less it was not just about humans but also about the economic stand point that the words showed. These two words, Greed and Incentives, lead the world wondering what they actually mean, the status of human nature, and finally the human love or for ones self interest in the free market.
Sources exhibit examples of greed that result in impoverished conditions for all circumstances of life. Greed is evident through the actions of social groups, and at the individual level. Selfishness would not benefit the good in life if it is expected to gain and not be expected to lose. Gluttony is evident in today's social environment just as much as it was years ago, whether it be using someone for self purpose, exploitation, damaging relationships, creating wars and oppression, destroying nature, countless other evils and many live without the necessities that we take for granted.
The relationship between humanity and nature has undergone a power shift since the time of cave paintings in Lascaux. The Tragedy of the Commons describes a balance between pre-industrial humans and nature, a relationship of morbid regulation. Human kind was prosperous, however limited in growth by various methods of population culling, which prevented humans from dominating the resources presented by nature. The issue occurs when humans reach a point of social cohesiveness that they are able to resist nature’s methods of population regulation and grow uninhibited. At this moment I believe humans departed from our relationship with nature, we circumvented the terms of natures presence in the relationship and embodied a supreme position of exploitation
“We are consuming the Earth’s natural resources beyond its sustainable capacity of renewal” said by Herman Daly, Beyond Growth, Boston 1996, 61[1] .
Greed is a natural consequence of trying to get the most for the least. From the beginning, humans have been greedy to the point where now it is part of being human to be greedy. There is no person on Earth that has never been greedy and there never will be. The first person who walks this planet without having ever been greedy will no longer be human. Greed is valuable to self, to society, and to our species. Humans act like a swarm, when everyone follows their own personal interests; we appear to be following an organized pattern. From chaos a perfect order is born. An order governed solely by greed.
Imagine a life with no food, no shelter and no family. This is hard because most people have never been without these basic needs. Some people however, find it hard to imagine a life with these needs, as in “The Ultimate Safari” by Nadine Gordimer. This story takes place during civil war, where the greed of bandits along with the greed of rebels cause conflict which can only be solved through sharing and co-operation.
There is a little too much greed going on in society. My definition of greed is when a limitless person selfishly wants something and the obsessive addictions is that enough is never enough. The dictionaries definition is ‘an inordinate or insatiable longing, especially for wealth, status, and power.’ People do not realize that greed concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. People think the need of wanting something is just a thought, however if you continue to think about it, eventually the person will find a way to allow greed to take over the thoughts. Greed can make a man, but it can also destroy him ten times over. It is one thing to want money or materialistic ideals, but the necessity almost unavoidably becomes greed. Greed is something
I have understood that the Sustainability study involves the transformation of our civilization toward a regenerative system that promotes healthy and stable ecosystems, consumes natural resources no faster than they can replenish, releases toxic pollutants into our habitat no faster than they can be absorbed, fosters healthy and cohesive habitats that can coexist and continue long time in the future. Sustainability initiatives work to change the world by changing activities in our personal and professional lives to achieve these objectives. I have learned that the Sustainability Revolution is a collection of values centered on healthy ecosystems, economic activities, and social justice. From the intensive focus on this topic during the last few weeks and from further readings on this subject, I have learned that Sustainability encompasses not just conservation and pollution, but a wide array of other issues, including Eco literacy, biodiversity, globalization, socially responsible investing, corporate social responsibility, human rights, population explosion, health, social and environmental justice, farming, labor issues, and women’s rights. I have also learned that Sustainability strategies are essential, transformative, and collaborative work involving participation of hundreds of thousands of citizens, communities and businesses around the world. Every organization and informed citizen needs to understand the perils that lie ahead and contribute their part towards Sustainability
Greed Greed is a selfish desire for more than one needs or deserves. Greed can make honest men murderers. It has made countries with rich valuable resources into the poorest countries in the world. We are taught it is bad and not to practice it. But consider a world without greed, where everyone is as sharing as Mother Theresa was. The progress of humankind would be at a standstill. Greed has given our society faster travel, better service, more convenience, and most importantly, progress. Greed has created thousands of billionaires and millions of millionaires. But why is greed associated with evil? In their day, most capitalists like Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller were depicted as pure evil. Vanderbilt stole from the poor. Rockefeller was a snake. But the name-calling did not come from the consumers; it was the competing businesses that complained. The newspapers expanded on these comments, calling them "robber barons." These are inaccurate terms for these businessmen. They were not barons because they all started penniless and they were not robbers because they did not take it from anyone else. Vanderbilt got rich by making travel and shipping faster, cheaper, and more luxurious. He built bigger, faster, and more efficient ships. He served food on his ships, which the customers liked and he lowered his costs. He lowered the New York to Hartford fare from $8 to $1. Rockefeller made his fortunes selling oil. He also lowered his costs, making fuel affordable for the working-class people. The working-class people, who use to go to bed after sunset, could now afford fuel for their lanterns. The people, who worked an average 10-12 hours a day, could now have a private and social life. The consumers were happy, the workers were happy, and they were happy. Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft Corporation is another example of a greedy person. He is the richest man in the world with about $40 billion and he continues to pursue more wealth. Just because he has $40 billion does not mean the rest of the world lost $40 billion, he created more wealth for the rest of the world. His software created new ways of saving time and money and created thousands of new jobs. Bill Gates got rich by persuading people to buy his product. His motive may have been greed, but to achieve that, he had to give us what we wanted.