¶ … greed in our society, its deteriorating impact on our society and ways to curtail the same. The Works Cited five sources in MLA format. Greed in Society

Greed! Greed! Greed! This is all that we observe around us in business dealings, in institutions including those that are established to impart quality education, in movies, in television shows, in every part of the corporate world as well as in day-to-day routine work. Our society where we live in and which rules and regulations we strongly try to abide has innumerable proofs of evident element of greed. With the world rapidly transmuting into a global village, more and more people are turning into materialistic and selfish souls that seek not only help from the outside world but also firmly believe in getting the more than most out of the given situation by all means whether unethical or morally adequate. Greed has many synonyms like avarice, rapacity, cupidity and so on and so forth. However, they all have exactly the same nature and salient characteristics that provide leeway for crimes and social mishaps including robbery, theft, murders, insider trading, cooking books and e.t.c.

However, the component of greed that is making the society shallow and its foundation weak incessantly certainly has a place of origin. And what is the origin of greed?

Origin of Greed in our Society

The element of greed that so commonly and evidently appears in our society today as a fundamental part of our societal ties as well as our social and moral values has emerged from the ever-flourishing mentality as well as the materialistic approach of the people of the world in general. Greed that we observe every day around the world has its birthplace in the fountain of money. The insatiable thirst to make money, to earn a handsomely infinite livelihood, to accumulate wealth and to generate big bucks by hook or by crook, at all costs, through all means but overnight or as soon as possible has given birth to the concept of greed that in turn generates selfishness and ruthlessness that in turn paves way for innumerable harmful, unethical and immoral practices.

Moreover, personal experience and thorough analysis of our social and moral values reveal the horrendous fact about the growing mentality of the people and the changing attitudes of the individuals towards each other. Both the mentality and the changing attitudes reflect the impact of greed on the psychology of the human mind. Today, more than ever, human beings are inclined towards earning quick and handsome amounts of money. The highly moneymaking mentality has further brought about an adverse change in the people's attitudes. People have grown more materialistic due to the similar reasons. On the same account, there has been a clear as well as a rapid shift of focus from being family oriented to career oriented. Gone are the days when man sought peace, happiness, success and love at home while spending quality time with his family members. Today, both men and women show equal yearning for greater material gains than emotional stability that comes from stronger family ties. Love for money and the unnecessary desire to earn quick money that is the urge to become rich overnight by all means is responsible for the element of greed that is augmenting in our society by the minute. This greed in people has surreptitiously penetrated deep down our societal and ethical values thereby weakening the moral grip on the overall human civilization. The loosening of the moral hold has further changed the attitudes of the people of the world towards each other, from selfless to selfish and from generous to miser. Thus, because of the changing mentality, attitudes and love of money, business-minded society is certainly heading for total disaster. Hence, the deteriorating impact of greed on the society is obvious from the discussion above and the following passages.

Impact of Greed on our Society

Greed has impacted our society in particular and the entire world in general in several ways but unfortunately quite adversely. The damaging influence coming from the component of greed can be studied under the following heads:

Materialistic approach and selfish attitudes:

The lust of wealth and the love for opulence has made people stop thinking and considering the status and the condition of others around them on the basis of humanity. Gone are the days when people were less materialistic and cared about others around them and were willing to extend a helping hand on humanitarian grounds. In today's world, "the drive...

This is not the out in the public statement but the feelings are still there. People will walk past someone living on the street and think that they don't deserve a chance at life, or that this person has obviously done something so wrong that they deserve to be without a comfortable place to sleep at night" (Greed and its impact on the society). Thus, greed has impacted every human being living on this face of earth and one who has to eke out a living to survive the coldness of this wintry world in the manner that people have grown selfish to the extent that they are willing to commit crimes and slash other people's throats only and only out of the desperation as well as the negative motivation to earn quick money.
Declining Morals:

Because of greed, this world has transmuted into a global village that believes in extreme and constant cutthroat competition that in turn gives them the inner satisfaction that they experience and enjoy, erupting from the urge to own maximum number of earthly possessions. This greed coupled with excessive desire has resulted in the declining morals of the overall human civilization. Unbelievably, the worst example of greed comes from the unethical and highly controversial practices of UCKG, a church with an estimated turnover of £700 million. It stands for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and amasses huge charities in the name of the 'the homeless, the elderly and drug addicts' (Rayner: Gospel of Greed) but unfortunately works secretly to make obscene amounts of money to accomplish higher material gains through absolutely unethical, immoral and illegal ways. Thus, greed has also impacted moral and ethical values of the people where it has caused considerable harm to the socio-economic values of the all individuals competing for money.

Unequal Distribution of Wealth:

Love of money that has resulted in the excessive greed in our society has in turn resulted in the unequal and unfair distribution of money. Out of greed, people who are capable of generating higher material gains are constantly making money and seeking ways to multiple their bank balance irrespective of the fact that the money that keeps them busy, that they keep hoarding can bring about a positive change in the lives of the less privileged lot. This insatiable thirst for opulence has created income gaps and stark differences in them living standards of the people. This is because; people who are rich are becoming richer with every sketching moment thereby compelling the poor lot to become poorer. This has further resulted in extreme dissatisfaction and restlessness among the working class and different classes of the society participating in the economic cycle. Hence, "it is time for us all to work together and treat everyone as equals, otherwise we can look forward to our own demise" (It has nothing to do with being nice).

Resulting Dissatisfaction and Restlessness Among the Working Class:

Income levels vary throughout the organization. However, "it has become common for companies to lay off tens of thousands of workers while announcing record profits, and while paying a few executives salaries that would have supported the laid off workers. According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major American corporation made 42 times the salary of the average factory worker in 1980. By 1998 it was 419 times the average factory worker's pay! When Germany's Daimler-Benz bought out the smaller Chrysler Corporation, its CEO was making 1/8 the salary of the Chrysler CEO. The situation is so out of hand that The Wall Street Journal and Forbes have questioned the methods CEOs use to inflate their income" (Macdonald, individual greed, corporate greed ruining society). Thus, greed that is the cause of the ruin of the existing human civilization has caused dissatisfaction among the various classes found in a society.

Prime Examples of the Element of Greed in our Society

Some of the prime examples of greed in the corporate world include the cases of WorldCom and Enron. Both the aforementioned cases serve as the possible and most clear evidences of the corporate greed that is the bane of the existing societies. Both the top companies out of sheer greed and love of money ended up "cooking books" and attempted fraud that led them to the point of…