In the world we live in, people naturally have tendency to choose to help themselves rather than help others. The affliction in which people choose themselves over others is known as greed or being greedy; and greed is known to be one of the seven deadly sins. Greed is like an obnoxious disease that has plagued our world’s society for many years. In society, there has always been a big impact on our world and in people’s lives because we are all blinded by greed one way or another.
In our society today, many times, when we act or do something, we do it to help ourselves rather than others. Not only can greed bring you loneliness, misery, and despair; but others as well. Sometimes when people are lonely or miserable they tend to be mean, deceitful, or even hostile towards others. Misery feeds off of other’s misery; and this is shown in the story “The Devil and Tom Walker”. In the story, Tom is a man of greediness and his wife is just as “miserly”. The devil approaches Tom with a proposition; one that offered him much wealth and treasure, aside from the consequence of taking the offer. When Tom told his wife of the situation, she was enraged and quite dissatisfied with the fact that he didn’t jump at the offer. In her frustration, she went off in search of the devil so that she could take the deal for herself. Although, soon after she set off on her quest Tom grew concerned because she had not returned yet and she should have. So then, Tom went out in search of her only to find her apron with the remains of a heart and liver inside. The fact that Tom took comfort in thought of his wife never returning to him proves that there was nothing more to their marriage than greed and misery. This shows that in the end only comes suffering and anguish after a life full of greediness and selfishness. At the end of the story; how wealthy Tom Walker had become, how many times he attended church, and whether he always carried his bible with him, it mattered not when the devil came for him. In relation to the story and Tom turning to the Church in the end, the Church may not help people not be greedy in the endgame anyhow. There is an article that talks about how because of greed, the Church was given wrongful “advice” that it was okay “to beat victims of sexual abuse to the ground.” (Greeley, 6). Although greed cause much more injustice in the world today like for example; it “is the reason that the country is being run by insurance, pharmaceutical, weapons, and petroleum industries.” (Greeley, 5). Greed blinds us all, which causes us to make wrong choices at times.
In modern day, greed has become the source and cause of many of our big issues in the world. At this day in age, our economy works like a big chain: to go to school, you need money; and to get money, you need a job; and to get a job you need a degree from school. These chains put many people in a quite difficult, no good situation. The temptation of greed has become much more desirable and tempting due to our advance in technology and economy. Due to our advance in technology, people may become unhappy with what they already have and yearn for the bigger and better. Although, greed takes form in other ways as well, take food and drink for example; “When greed manifests as the intense and selfish desire for food and drink,” (Michael, 3) it may cause one to become overweight and lead to obesity. It has been proven that “An obese adult spends 42% more on healthcare than someone with a healthy weight,” (Michael, 3) which is quite expensive.
The people of the past and the people of the present, we all simply aim to please ourselves before others when our judgment is so clouded by greed. Our society needs to learn to be better so that we can better our future and the future of our children. While we are to busy being greedy and worrying about ourselves, who is going to help out the less fortunate or elderly; we can’t just forget about others in the world who we share the earth with. The advanced technology, advanced economy, and wrongfully in powdered are just a few examples of what make our country so greedy.
Work Cited
- Greeley, Andrew. “America’s Disease Is Greed.” Common Dreams, 20 Aug. 2004, https://www.commondreams.org/views04/0820-09.htm
- Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker.” McDougal Littell Literature, McDougal Littell, 2008.
- Michael, Paul. “Greed Makes You Poor | Money.” Time, Time, 3 June 2016, time.com/money/4357067/greed-keeps-you-poor/.
