According to Christian tradition, the seven deadly sins are enmity, wrath, sloth, pride, lust, gluttony, and greed or avarice. Furthermore, according to the Bible, the seven deadly sins are character traits that will bring sadness. Today’s world is rife with sins, including avarice. Greed is referred to as an excessive desire to own wealth or possession. Greed is characterized by an unchecked desire to enhance material gains, such as acquiring or using wealth or social worth, like position or power (Andreff). Because it causes behavioural conflict between personal and group aims, greed has been identified as undesirable throughout recorded human history. Gluttony in the world makes people live unhappy, selfish lives; individuals, corporations, and our governments all exhibit greed.
People might not be aware of their greed. Although it may not appear very large, it is terrible since it ruins a person’s inner and outside. The brain’s neurochemistry is where greed originates, and dopamine, a hormone neurotransmitter, drives people’s desire. People experience more pleasure when dopamine levels in the brain rise. Indeed, the disease of greed is fatal. The practice of greed affects friends, family, and partners. Like other addictions, it creeps up unnoticed, takes behavioural and psychological hold, seizes ownership, is denied, justified, and exercised in the idea that the behaviour is expected rather than out of control. People now perceive it as entirely different since they believe it is more like pursuing your desires than being greedy.
Greed is viewed negatively because it may harm individuals and negatively impact society. One of the most consistent findings is that dispositional greed is inversely connected to happiness and life satisfaction. Additionally, desire is linked to emotional instability, neuroticism, a low sense of self-worth, and a lack of confidence in others. Stress, weariness, worry, sadness, and despair are too frequently side effects of avarice. It can also result in dysfunctional behaviour patterns, including hoarding, gambling, deceit, and even stealing. Because they don’t care about other people, it’s much worse in the corporate world. They are solely interested in themselves.
Its drawbacks include the potential for people of all income levels to spend more than they can afford, which could result in financial ruin, longer commutes, or even divorce. The idea that greed is essential for markets to thrive is more likely a reflection of people’s capacity to rationalize their interests than actual economic knowledge. All people naturally want to live happy and prosperous lives. Success is frequently linked to accumulating wealth and material possessions (Lambie et al., 36). Individuals will become increasingly driven to acquire items and money if they believe doing so will make their lives happier. Even with the best intentions, greed can result from wanting to be satisfied. Unhappiness develops when greed replaces the desire for success and happiness.
In many instances, someone’s greed can make those around them unhappy. Imelda Marcos, the wife of the Philippine president commencing in 1965, serves as an illustration. People who could not afford shoes filled the majority of the Philippines. On the other hand, Marcos was free to make as many purchases as she liked, which she took advantage of. She wore ostentatious apparel and jewellery and possessed over a thousand pairs of shoes and fifteen mink coats (Holsworth). Meanwhile, the Philippines has many filthy, dangerous places and impoverished places. She could have improved the health and happiness of countless individuals if the money used for Marcos’ pointless purchases had instead been used to assist these people. It is incredibly selfish to spend money on lavish extravagances when your nation struggles to make ends meet.
Imelda Marcos and other characters in Millionaire Matchmaker exemplify how greed results in sadness. It is selfish when someone takes advantage of another to acquire money, power, or commodities (Lambie et al., 36). These television programs are built on the idea of introducing two people who have never met before because one of them is wealthy. Unhappiness results from choosing to be in a relationship with someone just because they are rich. Problems will eventually arise if there is no love between the two people and just money keeps them together. Numerous couples who participate in these television programs find that the money is not worth staying with someone they do not love or interact well with after only a year together.
I asked, “Would you rather be a billionaire or have a stable, happy existence?” about people’s decision to live a life of greed or not. The percentages of each perspective’s responses were equal. Some people said in response that I should choose the hard, joyful life instead since if money is your primary priority in life, it will destroy you. Others on the opposite side of the argument said living in poverty would be preferable to being a millionaire. Money should never be someone’s aim because once they have it, they will never be satisfied and always want it, negatively impacting their relationships with family, friends and their mental health (Carnevale et al., 902). However, everything is perceived from many angles.
Smaller segments of the population are typically affected by individual selfish people; nevertheless, the more authority a greedy person has, the more people they can act. For instance, there was a lot of greed during COVID-19 since many businesses were forced to close at the beginning of the pandemic. Still, many more enormous organizations did not close as they were deemed necessary. Telecommunications, food, clothes, shelter, cleaning, and other industries could continue operating as usual. The government began disbursing stimulus cheques to help Americans cope with the financial impact of losing their jobs. However, businesses that were still working, like Amazon, grocery stores, and distribution firms, required workers, so they had to increase their pay rates to levels that would entice stimulus recipients to leave the couch and work in their warehouse. These businesses offered $5, $7, or even $10 per hour more than their standard hourly wages (Andreff). Demand increased since fewer small enterprises could compete; thus, they had to raise pay rates to recruit workers and maintain the necessary workforce.
These enterprises had to increase the pricing of their commodities to pay the labour costs, so inflationary price indexes are now being felt. This, however, might have been wholly avoided. Many of those businesses viewed the outbreak as their chance to generate untold sums of money. They either maintained their operations at pre-pandemic output levels or increased production levels while setting new records for profitability. These businesses would not have made millions of dollars or raised wages if they had limited output to pre-epidemic groups or even lower levels and utilized the employees they had on hand before the pandemic. They paid rates to complete the entire job they could. Unless the businesses raise their prices to reflect the wage increases, these higher wages reduce profits. We are experiencing inflationary costs due to increased salaries and higher pay due to leveraging COVID earnings.
I will use Amazon as an example because of how well-known it is and what they have to offer. They had a monopoly on the market and could sell anything and deliver it to customers’ doors within two days; however, this only applied to Prime members. They required personnel to maintain their “2-day” service level. They paid workers well for them to show up for work. What if they issued a press release saying, “Instead of spending more money and recruiting more employees, “Our Prime members will get their orders in not more than four days due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, and we will resume our 2-day service as our labour and inventory levels stabilize?” That is poor business, though (Carnevale et al., 902). Instead, they raise the price of things to pay workers more, maintain high levels of profitability, and wreck the economy in the process.
In the end, people’s desire to achieve something drives them to be greedy. People ought to cease making their achievements at the expense of others. Instead of focusing on themselves, they ought to learn what the needs of society are. I don’t mind if businesses make money, even record-breaking profits. However, I think that rather than being the result of innovation, price gouging, or manufacturing efficiencies, today’s inflation was brought on by the gains made through capitalizing on COVID.
Work Cited
Andreff, Wladimir. “The unintended emergence of a greed-led economic system.” Kybernetes (2019).
Carnevale, Joel B., Jack E. Carson, and Lei Huang. “Greedy for thee or greedy for me? A contingency model of positive and negative reactions to leader greed.” Journal of Business Research 132 (2021): 897-905.
Lambie, Glenn W., and Jaimie Stickl Haugen. “Understanding greed as a unified construct.” Personality and Individual Differences 141 (2019): 31-39.
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