Pursuit of Wealth

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Throughout history, there has always been a pursuit of wealth; meaning, not just “money,” but also power, land, freedom, and possessions. Under a moral, trustworthy government this is not a problem, it is when the government is corrupt that issues tend to proceed. The pursuit of wealth has had a mostly positive with some negative effects on the development of civilization up until this point; some examples include the fall of Rome, capitalist and communist economic systems, and the American Revolution. When the Roman Empire began, the pursuit of wealth helped to make it a great empire. Unfortunately, it also later lead to the downfall of the empire itself. For instance, it is known that foreign invasions endangered the empire because they didn’t have protection that the government should have provided. Why weren’t the leaders of the empire providing this protection? That leads to the second main reason of the downfall; the leaders in the government of the empire began to in a sense “only care about themselves.” They pursued wealth; they wanted the power, the money, and to be known. It came to the point where they weren’t paying attention to the needs of their people, therefore letting the empire begin to free fall. From this resulted urban decay, in a simpler sense, the city was decaying. Citizens were worse off than they had ever been and the streets were a dirty place to be. Under a capitalist government, the pursuit of wealth is positive, while under a communist government the pursuit of wealth is negative. That comes back to the point stated in the introduction, under an immoral government, the pursuit of wealth will not be superior for the civilization. For example, in a communist country due to dictators who are powe... ... middle of paper ... ...for their rights, and eventually gaining freedom. In conclusion, the pursuit of wealth has had a mostly positive effect with some negative effects on the development of civilization up until this point; some examples include the fall of Rome, capitalist and communist economic systems, and American Revolution. When the government has correct morals, such as in a capitalist government where the people are free to do as they like as long as they follow the carefully thought out laws, the pursuit of wealth has a positive impact and few problems will arise. When the government is corrupt such as it is in Rome with the leaders who overlook the needs of their citizens and pursue power for only themselves, or in a communist country where the government that claims to want everybody to be equal overpowers every citizen they possibly can, the pursuit of wealth is negative.

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