The Perfect Drug
Is money the perfect drug, a cure all pill that will take away all misery,
anguish, and suffering; or is it an addictive depressant, sending us on the
downward spiral towards death? The truth of life is that money lures us in with
its appealing image, creates a dependency, and gradually rends us a soulless slave
to it.
“And I want you…”
Almost all of America today is consumed by a need to attain great wealth,
reputation, and worldly possessions. Everything is about what job can be attained,
who can be impressed, or what possessions we are about to surround ourselves with.
To this end, we are enraptured by a need for as much money as possible. This can
come by the means of anything from playing the lottery to investing to working at
a job that we hate. Torturing ourselves to gain wealth and power, we willingly
accept the pains of the 8AM - 5PM day to feel a small amount of happiness from
6PM-10PM. The high that is gained by this small increase in wealth is just enough
to keep us coming back for more, the addiction just enough to create a dependency
that is both strong and invisible. We are so captivated by the false happiness of
wealth that we fail to recognize the shallow truth of it all: that we are slaves
to our money. Just like addicts to heroin, we cannot live without money, and we
always crave more. However, just because we have more money doesn’t mean that
we’ll have more to spend. We almost immediately will take any gained wealth and
put it towards an increase in living style, such that our spending money remains
virtually the same as it was whenever we had less money overall. These changes
in living style are usually some material possession like a car that we see
ourselves as needing to have. Take the example of the suburban yuppies driving
around in SUV’s and worse, Hummers. Are such robust vehicles really necessary
for tackling the rough streets of suburbia? The obvious answer here is no, but it
mustn’t be too obvious, because these types of vehicles can be seen everyday out
of their intended setting. This brings up the point of their use, which is to
make sure that the drivers look more powerful than anyone else around them. What’s
According to Selzer, Cooter thinks that Miss Bailey’s inheritance of her master’s wealth has been “misappropriated”, because “she didn’t earn it” (260). This indicates that exploitation is ultimately the reign over minds, in which the victims inherently agree with the capitalism theory so that they experience inequality without awareness. Nevertheless, while echoing Marx’s theory, Berlant concludes that the possession of large wealth creates a dilemma between choosing one’s “habituated life” and the unknown future that is “yet to be invented” (37). The lack of cultural capital minimizes people’s capacity of ownership, thus the possession of wealth alone will not change the state of living for poor people, because it is “too alive”
Fitzgerald, a primary character throughout several short stories, lives with a tragic flaw that has unfavourable effects on his life, similar to other characters in the 4U English curriculum. Fitzgerald develops an unhealthy obsession with his love for Ming. He begins calling her “three times a night… He fell behind in lecture tapes, until she reminded him that he had to study if he wanted to get into medical school” (62). This overwhelming infatuation becomes a main factor in their breakup, as he is a distraction from her studies, which she values above all else. Furthermore, the severing of his ties to Ming causes laziness in his own studying and puts his chances of getting into medical school in jeopardy. This rejection is the beginning of the downward spiral of Fitzgerald’s young adulthood. From their breakup stems his depression and co...
From the beginning of time, greed and money has motivated man above all else. It seems
In “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Peter Singer is trying to argue that “the way people in relatively affluent countries react to a situation… cannot be justified; indeed,… our moral conceptual scheme needs to be altered and with it, the way of life that has come to be taken for granted in our society”(Singer 230). Peter Singer provides striking examples to show the reader how realistic his arguments are. In this paper, I will briefly give a summary of Peter Singer’s argument and the assumptions that follow, adding personal opinions for or against Peter’s statements. I hope that within this paper, I am able to be clearly show you my thoughts in regards to Singer.
money will buy your problems away. As if wealth is unconditional. For example, one-day a
Drunk driving is a completely needless crime due to it not being obligatory and completely recreational. According to the DMV, every 53 minutes, someone is killed by a drunk driver and every 90 seconds, someone is injured. That totals to about 350k people affected physically by someone driving under influence. That also doesn’t include the families affected by the fatalities or injuries. Almost one out of every three traffic deaths involves drunk driving and one in three people will be involved in a drunken driving crash in their lifetime. Some may believe that driving “tipsy” is not as ba...
Any comprehensive theory (model) of substance abuse has to answer several difficult questions: What environmental and social factors in an individual’s life cause them to start abusing a drug? What factors cause them to continue? What physiological mechanisms make a drug rewarding? What is addiction, behaviorally and physiologically, and why is it so hard to quit? These questions can be answered in the major theories (models) that are described below using an integrative approach that addresses the problem of substance abuse and addiction as an urgent but elusive goal (Kauffman & Poulin, 1996).
...lue and having artificial value really changed the amount of power they felt. Research from Stanford shows that the more money people have, the more addictive it is. This causes a problem when people try to obtain items with emotional value, but end up getting caught up in money.
Wealth comes from only one of several reasons: one, it is inheritance passed down from one generation to the next. Two, it is righteously hard-earned and achieved through many trials; and three, out of thieving. A good example of inheritance is Finn Rausing, a Swede who inherited 5.1 billion dollars from his grandfather. An obvious example of a hard-earned paycheck is America’s very own, Steve Jobs (Moisescot, 2010). Then there are women like Rita Crundwell who love to embezzle millions of dollars from tax payers. (Babwin, 2013)
There is a need for the introduction and implementation of new drunk driving laws by the legislature, because presently the united States drunk driving laws are too lenient. The continuous rate of drunken driving fatalities makes a case that the united States drunk driving laws are too lenient and makes a call for stricter laws. According to Valenti “countries with strict drunk driving penalties have a far lower incidence of accidents than the United States (1). The United States being a first world country is weak in enforcing strict punishment for drunk drivers. Valenti is emphasizing on the fact that the united States need to improve their present laws and be firm in enforcing these new laws. There is a need for the United States to improve on their severity of its drunk driving penalties just the way the other part of the world have done and this is giving them a reduced rate of drunk driving fatalities. The claim of the leniency of the United States drunk driving laws is further stated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this is a prominent body when it comes to the issue of drunken driving fatalities. It claims that the drunken driving laws are severe enough. “Despite great strides in awareness, education and enforcement in the last two decades the United States still has one of the most lenient drunken driving standards in the world”. (NHTSA of existing laws. There is a need for stricter laws to be introduced as the United States ranks behind the world when it comes to effort to combat drunk driving and more efforts need to be put in place by the implementation of harsher laws so as to reduce the high rate of repeat offenders and first time offenders.
Progressively there are more accidents happening every year as a result of drunk driving, and these drunk drivers should be greatly penalized, if you drive hammered you should get nailed! Driving drunk is considered to be one of the most severe crimes in almost every state because the driver is not only risking there life they are putting everyone else’s life in danger on the road. Every 22 minutes, someone will die in an alcohol-related traffic accident. Although you probably think that it could never happen to you, experts say everyone has a 40-percent chance of being in a crash involving alcohol use sometime in their life. Being intoxicated while driving is dangerous to your health and the well-being of others.
Money is probably one of the most important things in this world. Without it, life would be very hard. With it, you become economically stable making life would be easier in some ways. But the real question is, can money actually make someone physically and emotionally happy? There are many sides to this debate; some who say yes and others who say no. Though most people agree with the statement, “Money doesn’t buy happiness,” there is still a large amount of people who disagree with it. They believe that money does indeed buy happiness and that it’s the most important thing in the world. There is no right or wrong answer to this question, it’s just a matter of what you believe in and your values.
When none of us has ever come across such words and formulas, none of the great personalities has ever mentioned it, then who the hell has instilled it in our minds that money brings happiness. But among this debate one question still raises its head - What is happiness? Happiness is not actually leading a luxurious life but the luxury of living a life. Happiness is not actually about expanding your business, but it lies in expanding the horizons of life. Happiness is not having a meal in the most famous restaurant but to have it with your most beloved family. It does not lie in attending honorable parties but to attend a party with honor.
Now how does a person go about being happy, well let us examine one of the most common questions in reference to happiness, “can money buy happiness?” most people would say “yes.” The answer to this question will almost always be yes, because society and humans in general tend to be greedy creature always wanting more, from a better house to finer foods there is and always will be more to obtain. But is having these things what makes humans happy or is it the success of achieving your own...
Many people argue that money is not the key to happiness. However, have you ever seen a sad person riding a Ferrari? Or have you ever seen a man crying because he is too rich? In fact, I have no doubt that you've seen a man crying, because he is too poor. Money brings a lot of things to our lives. Money gives us what we want, gives the possibility toward a better future, and brings love and friendship as well. Therefore money is the ultimate key to happiness.