Image by Renee

Are you that selfish person who eats the last chocolate chip cookie?–because I sure am! Every time my grandma makes cookies it’s a race to the kitchen, and I always end up eating the last one on the plate. Why is this? Because at that moment I feel good tasting the perfect soft cookie. My mom calls it greedy, I call it being hungry. And while greed is a good thing when it comes to snatching the last cookie, it is a fundamental part of being human and is generally seen as something negative. In fact, a 2014 60 Minutes report found that 78% of people believe that greed is something that is detrimental. I think it’s safe to say that everyone is guilty of being greedy at one point in their life, even if it’s as little as eating the last chocolate chip cookie, or as big as forcing millions of people out of their homes. Greed is important to understand as it is affecting our rational society and in order to better control this deadly sin, we must take a comprehensive look at its effects on us. First, let’s look at what causes humans to be greedy then we’ll look at how greed is unhealthy, and finally we will take a look at the crumby trail that greed leaves in society.

What is Greed?

First, let’s get a good look at what greed truly is. Greed is doing something for yourself to make yourself feel better, and doing this is bad. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines greed as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something that is needed.” Greed causes people to be selfish and do things for themselves, even if it hurts them or others. It can be a major factor in people becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol, greed can also cause people to do things that harm them. Doing all of these things are negative, so it proves that greed is bad.

Still, do not understand greed? Watch this video.

What causes humans to be greedy?

Image by Wikimedia Commons

When someone gains money, the ‘pleasure center’ parts of the brain activate, and that causes people to be happy. According to Hillel Cohen, “findings suggest a connection between activity in “pleasure center” areas of the brain and the action of making a profitable stock sale and even risk-taking behavior in anticipation or hope of gain […] In the experiments, losses and fear of loss activated a different area of the brain— one that has been associated with painful experiences.” This shows, when you win something, a part of your brain activates and that makes you feel good, but when you lose something it makes you feel pain. People are greedy because they “win” something from it and it activates these pleasure centers. No one wants to feel the pain of losing and the response of greed prevents this feeling from occurring. Greed is a selfish act and it is caused by the brain.

How can greed be good?

In some ways, greed can have its pros. According to Neel Burton who is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and writer, “Greed, though an imperfect force, is the only consistent human motivation, and produces preferable economic and social outcomes most of the time and under most conditions.” This means that greed can is for human motivation and the economy. Being greed will and wanting will push people to do things that can lead to success. So greed may have a small positive effect but the cons outweigh the pros, so overall greed is bad.

Watch a video of Gordon Gekko is telling us why greed is good.

How greed is unhealthy for you!

Greed is unhealthy for individual people, so if you are greedy you can cause harm to yourself. According to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute, “More than 35% of U.S. adults are obese, and more than 34% are overweight.” Eating junk food and being lazy makes most people make feel good about themselves in that short moment. And since greed is a short-term self-benefit, it can impact your long-term health. So that means when you are repeatedly being greedy and wanting more, the lazier you can become, and you can develop more unhealthy eating habits. Greed can cause you to be addicted to drugs or alcohol. According to Partnership for Drug-Free Kids,  “Drug use is on the rise in this country and 23.5 million Americans are addicted to alcohol and drugs.” This proves, greed affects individual people, and people use drugs and alcohol because they want pleasure. People have a desire for drugs than once they take the drugs it relaxing them, and it’s a way to escape reality for a while, this is called pleasure, and once the drug wears off the cycle repeats itself. A bunch of people does not realize that greed can be one of the many reasons why people repeatedly take drugs. So in other words, once someone starts drinking or taking drugs, they will want more for themselves because it lets them relax and it feels good at the moment, and that is called greed because it’s the wanting of more for self-benefit or pleasure.

Watch to learn about 5 problems that come with greed.

Corporate Greed

According to Time Inc.“Sadly, it’s not personal greed, but corporate greed that is having an impact on our wallets. And in some instances, it keeps people in poverty. From the greedy politicians who take cash to vote against the public interest, to the outsourcing of jobs to other countries, America has a serious greed problem. Many of us feel it a little, here and there. But for some, it’s the cause of great hardships.

One recent example comes from Wendy’s. After the recent minimum wage hike, and plans to raise it to $15/hour, the fast-food giant responded with automated self-service kiosks. “We continue to look at initiatives and how we work to offset any impacts of future wage inflation through technology initiatives, whether that’s customer self-order kiosks, whether that’s automating more in the back of the house in the restaurant,” said CTO Todd Penegor (who was compensated over $3 million in 2014). The moral of this story — demand a living wage and you’re out of a job.”

How greed is unhealthy for society.

Now, let’s just say you’re walking down the street and you dropped your wallet. What are the chances of you getting it back? Well, let us just say it is not very likely. According to CNN writer Melissa Gray, “Researchers dropped 20 wallets and purses in each of five British cities,[…] only 20 percent of the wallets and purses were returned, and only 55 percent of those contained the original sum of money.” This shows, that most people will take them all, or most of the money in the wallet for themselves. People will do take money for themselves, even if it’s not the right thing to do. Why, because in the society that we live in today it’s filled with greedy people, that just want more things for themselves, they want money and power, and they do not always realize that they are doing something wrong, and affecting other when they are doing a very greedy act.

Image by Feed My Starving Children

Moving on, one of the biggest issues all of the U.S and around the world is hunger. There are many people starving in America. According to Feeding America, “41 million Americans struggle with hunger, a number nearly equal to the 40.6 million officially living in poverty.” This proves, that greed is impacting our society, and people are caring so much about there self, they do not help 41 million Americans that are starving. I am not saying that you must help all 41 million starving people, but it would not be too hard if you donate some food or money to charity. Most people have extra food that they just throw away, instead of giving to people in need. People do that because it saves them time and money and they would rather save there time and money and but other things, like a new car or a brand new iPhone, and that is called greed. They don’t necessarily realize that they are impacting many people lives, and everyone is guilty of this, and we aren’t awful people for buying and getting new things for ourselves, but our society can do more to help others out other than just worrying about ourselves. Greed impacts society negative, and we need to be aware of that and think of what we are doing.

Conclusion

So we have looked at how the brain causes humans to be greedy, then I talked about how greed is unhealthy, and lastly, I talked about how greed negatively impacts society. Different parts of the cause people to be greedy, and people want to feel good and happy so they are greedy. People are greedy even if it hurts them, greed can cause mental illness and addictions. Greed is also impacting society today, millions of people are starving, and people can help but because of greed, people do not help. The next time you do a selfish act, think about how you are impacting others and yourself.

Feature Image by Pictures of Money.