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The Biggest Problem In America Is Greed
Posted by 7masterheathen • 7/03/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: greed
I think the biggest problem in America, and maybe the rest of humanity is greed and materialism. I think it has been the main contributor in the making of wars, government corruption, industrial pollution and more. But I'd like to know what your take is on greed.
I just wrote a little rant on the subject just now on my website. It's semi-humorous, semi-serious. Read it if you wish. No pressure. 
psychocarnival.blogspot.com/2008/07/filling-void.html
User Comments
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Greed is not new, it goes back to the first caveman who knocked his neighbor over the head with a rock because he had a nicer club.
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Heh heh. So true.
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Read and commented.
The clown face threw me for a loop though. I am terrified of clowns!-
OOoooh. I'm sorry.
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To understand mans "greed," you must understand mans "selfishness." -
Wall Street - Greed Is Good
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaKkuJVy2YA-
Greed, war and ignorance sucks the life out of humanity and leaves the broken remnants and ghosts of our past.
Zippity Dooo Dah -Zippity Yay.... my oh my what a wonderful day.
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I think so too. I am guilty of greed. America generally acts greedy. I am not proud of this.
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I think all of us in the good ol' U.S. of A are guilty. I think people in other "poorer" countries are richer in spirit and morals than we are.
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It's a mentality or mind frame. I think it's good to be ambitious, to try your best, but we all have to be cautious of the "greed trap", to get sucked into wanting more and more. I for one have no need for luxury or too much money. I mean it would be good to be rich, don't get me wrong, but I would feel guilty and would not sleep at night if I were stinking rich. Just enough for my family and me, and my closest friends. But I think greed is a worldwide problem, not only limited to America. -
I don't care if I'm rich or not. As long as I have enough to eat, can pay the bills and buy a new book now and then. Luckily, my wife poo feels the same.
Yeah, I think greed is a worldwide mental disease. What you think you gotta have, you probably don't really need. Unless it's food, heat and so on.... the necessities of living.
Now pardon me for a moment.... I have to look at this really neato flat screen tv. -
Greed is obviously a bad thing (that's why it's one of the Several Deadly Sins, I believe they're called). But most wars throughout history--even Iraq, sadly--have either been in the name of religion, or have had some kind of religious tint to them. So if you mean "wars" like, "armies with big fucking guns" and so forth, religion has historically been the cause of wars.
As for other kinds of wars--most of which involve class--greed may be a more likely culprit.-
Religion in war is cover for greed. There would be no fight, except for the booty. War is competition for resources. Religion is used to make it sound like there are higher motives.
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greed is like an addiction, you keep wanting more, more territory, more control, more power, more members, more TV channels, faster Internet...it's the opposite of healthy balance
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Are people in other countries richer in spirit and morals for being poor? are poor people at all better for being poor? The logic to that is that we should use all our endeavours to keep people poor.What nation upholds liberty like America does, and who are more generous and giving?
I am of course not advocating greed, nor God forbid condemning the poor. But it's funny to equate poverty with morality-
I agree with you. Greed can manifest itself in many ways and is not unique to one culture, one country, or one economic group. Some greed is good, and some is not. It is the bad type of greed that is the ruin of others and even poor countries have terrible evidence of that (such as kickbacks, bribery of officials while their people starve). As baldeagle stated greed can be a motivator that leads to good.
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People get greedy when they equate material things with power or happiness. And it goes to show that the lives of the greediest and richest people are often the most empty. -
It might be the biggest problem in human history, not just present U.S. events. -
If greed is the biggest problem, lust is a fast closing runner up... -
good point, lust is very similar to greed ... never satisfied with one partner, they keep searching for multiple partners
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i wished i owned the biggest blog in the world, then i'd really be something.
oh ... sorry ... um ... and the question was? -
If not stated outright, it is often implied that greed is our natural condition. But in truth we as a specie survived and expanded out of a few measly tribes of a couple thousand because we, unlike other mammals, divided up resources and shared. It was this communal living of our ancestors that allowed the specie to grow and eventually spread worldwide. -
@7masterheathen
Thanks for posting the link to your blog post above. I have visited and I left you a comment. FWIW the last two posts on my personal blog are related posts:
thistimethisspace.com/2008/06/29/wake-up-america-god-is-not-on-your-side/
thistimethisspace.com/2008/07/02/america-awake-killing-is-not-a-christian-v...-
Hey, I was finally able to read your posts. I've been way too busy these last four days visiting family and friends. Had one minute for blogging during that time and it was drivin' me mad as a hatter.
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darn - duplicate removed
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Greed is not the problem. The human mind is the problem.
A war can start just because a leader felt like starting one.
The human mind can not be explained.-
And what caused the brain to think about starting a war? An accumulation of experiences that conditioned the brain to think this way.
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I totally agree in another threas asked if money was the root of all evil or something like that but I also agree it is.. GREED!~
wondering,thinking,pondering....
hb~-
This is the url for the related thread that you have referred to www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/root-of-all-evil
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I absolutely Agree on that. -
Last hope for the altruistic:
The road to success is always under construction. -
Anyone want to try to give a good definition of greed? I don't know if I can agree with the original statement otherwise. I'm surrounded by an entire area of "Americans" who give and give. Las month a fund raiser was held for a local guy who needed some major surgery. This conservative community of about 2000 people raised 47,000 dollars in one night at an auction. Many of the items were purchased and then donated back for auctioning again. And this kind of thing happens all the time in this community of farmers, ranchers, and loggers. Some are well to do. Some are just making ends meet. -
Sorry if this was a dead topic, but I just came across this and thought I'd chime in:
To me, greed is just one extreme on a continuum. If I were to chart it out, there would be one extreme, of complete selflessness and at the other extreme, complete greediness. Every action we take is driven off of an impulse that falls somewhere along this continuum.
In my opinion, to be a balanced person, you need to have some level of activity in both directions. You do things that benefit yourself and you then give to charity.
If you look at Bill Gates. He created one of the most powerful companies in the world because he had selfish goals. Some would even call him brutal. And in a business-sense, I agree and applaud him for it. He has then turned around and funded billions in humanitarian efforts, and pledged even more. No doubt many of you would applaud him for that.
In a sense, it was his "greed" that allows him the opportunity to do more for people than we could. Greed is bad when the person doesn't do their part to be balanced. But that balance is very much a personal thing. You don't have to be rich to be greedy. -
Poverty, Unemployment, Drug Aggiction, Healthcare, Guns, Crime are much bigger problems...
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