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The impact of materialism in society
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Christian views on poverty and wealth
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Material possessions or money do not fulfill a person, nor do they define a person. It is others looking at someone else and wanting what they possess, or envy. The old adage “keeping up with the Jones’,” is apt when considering the attitudes of our Western culture toward money and possessions owned by others. We seem to have a type of pecking order, top-down status based on what a person or family has earned.
Consider the upper echelon of the Enron Corporation and their crazy purchases of stuff, bought seemingly just to buy something. Purchased homes just to buy more stuff to put in them, or to have a place to put all the nonsensical items they just had to have. As Enron executives were selling off their stock and not letting anyone know how bad things were going, the Enron art committee were buying art that would show how innovative and trend setting the corporation was. The committee purchased a vinyl light switch for $595,000. This is just one idiotic item bought by this group. The art committee had a budget at this time of $20 million dollars (Lubbock). Imagine if there was just a minute amount of spiritual goodness in these individuals and they had used these funds to aid the laid-off workers, or that they had done business honestly in the first place; think of the good things they could have accomplished.
Bernard Madoff and his ponzi scheme is another great example of greed. Did he actually require these possible billions of dollars that he stole from his investors? Did he just want to be the top dog, the guy with the most stuff when he died? Madoff defrauded his own Synagogue and many of the members. He lived a lavish lifestyle, beautiful homes and furnishings, yachts, jets and still he wanted more. When ...
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...to be a Christian nation,” he tells me, surveying his temporary kingdom. “And yet it’s basically illegal to live according to the teachings of Jesus” (Sundeen 27). In the King James version of the Bible in Matthew 6:19-23 Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Apparently, we have not learned our lessons as well in America we are still laying up our treasures on Earth. Our populace is driven by the need of possession and it would appear that we will be unable to convert from materialism to that of a spiritual nature by the majority of our people. But, there is always faith, hope, and love.
It is not wrong to have luxuries, what is measured is how we obtain them, our attitude towards them and what we do when them. Do they own us, or do we own them?
A well-known expression is that money can’t buy happiness, yet people fantasize of winning the lottery, living in their dream house, and possessing enough tangible objects to feel satisfied with their lives. Most are under the preconceived notion that the absence of wealth and power translates to hardship and despair. This, however, is not the case, because a self-effacing lifestyle is not an indication of a lower quality of life, and often is better than one of great fortune. People yearn to have the financial independence and capabilities of those in higher ranking positions, and are willing to abandon their morals and own personal well-being if it means being successful. It seems that by reaching a level of wealth in which money is no longer
...hat materialistic attitudes are harmful to one's well-being. “The psychological perspective attributes the development of materialistic values to family circumstances that create stress and self esteem issues that promote materialistic values,” (Hung Vu Nguyen.) Many people in our culture attribute material goods to personal achievement. Truth rings true with Bertrand Russell’s statement “It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly.” Even at young ages children are competing and bragging to one another of who has more possessions. Past studies by Rindfleisch say that materialism developed over time as a response to stress due to family issues such as divorce, separation, and loss of loved ones. Materialism leads consumers to put a disproportionate amount of their resources into acquiring goods.
Greed is a subjectively abstract concept that can vary from person to person as well as from different situations. When one speak of greed, you may justifiably think of negative things, such as unfair deals that leave one side of the party rich and thriving, while the other side is left broken and bleeding. Although greed is commonly thought of as “bad”, there is also such a thing as “good” greed. For example, good greed could be seen as the creation of different inventions which increased productivity and efficiency in life. Inventors such as Eli Whitney and Henry Ford wanted to sell their products to gain revenue while simultaneously giving back to the community from the use of their inventions. Both parties, the inventors and the masses,
One of the well known classes in American is the ‘rich.’ The rich are people that can typically afford or buy the most, in order to outdo someone, and to be the best. This is where people are definitely not created equally, comes in to play. The American ‘upper class’ usually looks down upon any other class other than themselves, in the movie “People Like Us” Thomas Langhorne Phipps says; “We tend to dress better, act better, and look better.” (Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker, People Like Us,) To me this is demeaning, because I’m not rich, and I’m not poor, but it offends me because it seems like they’re looking down upon anyone and everyone other then themselves. In the movie it also talked about are different levels of the ‘rich’ way, and how they can tell who was born rich and who became rich. And even then they tend to look down on any...
Every day people are judged on what they have and what they don’t. When someone comes into your home they always look at what someone has and if their home is nice or not. That isn’t right because what someone has shouldn’t define them, it should be the person they are and how kind and giving they are. What someone has accomplished and...
In The Hound of the Baskerville, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle displays the effects of the greed by causing Hugo to be selfish, letting Mr. Stapleton have everything that he wants, and causing Mr. Stapleton to be jealous of Sir Henry. Finally, greed has to do with wanting lots of money or material wealth, but it doesn’t necessarily only relates to money. Greed can be for anything but is most likely for food, money, possessive, power, fame, or status. Never be greedy because it can mess up your whole life like Mr. Stapleton and
Being in America, a society encompassed by those of a wealthy nature versus those striving to obtain as much wealth as they can in their own limitations, it seems inevitable for one to pass judgment on those who choose the glamorous lifestyle over any morals they may have had prior to their riches. After reading Money and Class in America, it can be concluded that Mr. Lewis Lapham makes an intriguing point as he states that it is seemingly unintelligent to assume that one that is wealthy in pocket is also wealthy in intelligence. Everyday, greed filled Americans prove this judgment to be blatantly wrong, as they partake in the extravagant lifestyle without much thought in the immorality that comes with the lifestyle. Though some may say that
Living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, our culture has naturally valued prestige and luxuries. We admire fancy items and often judge other individuals by the clothes they wear, the car they drive, and the schools that they attend. The “American Dream” serves as a motivational factor for people; believing that hard work and dedication can bring “success” to ones’ life. Although this is partially true, it is difficult for individuals in the middle class and lower class.
middle of paper ... ... They had complete disregard for ethical standards that they should have looked towards when making their decisions. They allowed greed, and notoriety, to take over their basic perceptions of what is right, and what is wrong. So in conclusion, I have provided my analysis of ethical behavior that surrounded the financial events of Bernie Madoff, and the events that surrounded Enron.
In today’s society people let people be them to an extent. There are still gold diggers but a person’s money does not define who they are. Back in the 1800s all people really cared about was money, titles, and ranking. They did not let people figure out things for themselves but rather how can they be secure in the coming future. People cannot judge on status but rather on the person’s character. This gives a better representation of who the person really
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.
The Enron Corporation was an American energy company that provided natural gas, electricity, and communications to its customers both wholesale and retail globally and in the northwestern United States (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Top executives, prestigious law firms, trusted accounting firms, the largest banks in the finance industry, the board of directors, and other high powered people, all played a part in the biggest most popular scandal that shook the faith of the American people in big business and the stock market with the demise of one of the top Fortune 500 companies that made billions of dollars through illegal and unethical gains (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Many shareholders, employees, and investors lost their entire life savings, investments,
I have eaten from the plate of materialism, only to find that it tasted foul in my mouth. I bought the high-end stereo and the large television. I soon realized these possessions made me feel guilty because I was ignoring my upbringing. I was betraying all of the feelings that I felt as a child in a poor family. Now, my walls are bare because I do not like to surround myself with propaganda. The same propaganda advertisers flaunted in front of me while I was growing up in a lower income family, not lower class. The notion that the country's population is separated into classes by wealth, with the least wealthy deemed the lower class, is repulsive to me. I refuse to conform to the typical American consumer stereotype who needs material possessions to feel validated, ever again.
...wo influences: “scarcity and socialization hypotheses”. The scarcity theory explains how "an individual's priorities reflect one's socioeconomic environment: one places the greatest subjective value on those things that are in relatively short supply" (1990, p.68). Thus, people who are less economically advanced focus a greater importance on material acquisition then the more affluent people. The socialization hypothesis explains that "one's basic values reflect the conditions that prevailed during one's pre adult years" (1990, p.68), and these values are persistently stable over a long period of time. Consequently, the people whom experienced a lack of possessions in previous years are more likely to develop an obsessive desire for material goods, while people who originated from wealthy families may focus on personal fulfillment at the expense of higher incomes.