Most of us believe that the biggest problems in this world are poverty, armed conflicts and even global warming. Well, its not, in fact the biggest problem that we face today is human greed. Greed is an intense and selfish desire, for something. The most common type of greed, is money. Greed is the reason thiefs steal. Greed is the reason why families are being evicted and put on the streets. Greed is the reason why there are wars over precious resources. Greed is the reason why innocents are being murdered. Greed is the reason why we are drowning in debt even before we finish our education. Behind most major problems in the world, greed is the core cause such as, the collapsing economies, poverty, and even wars.
Everyday in the U.S the National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.86 billion per day, and is currently almost 17 Trillion dollars in debt. What is causing this? Greed. How? With interest. Interest rates are so high today that on average a mortgage of a house worth $500,000 with an interest level of 4.3% over a period of 30 years, you will end up paying more than double of that. ($645,000) Therefore, in total you will be paying the bank $1,145,00.00, just to pay off your house, this is the same as the bank giving you money for one house, while you help them fund and build 2 other houses. This is a perfect example of greed that everybody is facing, and it is inevitable. The only person who benefits from this greed is the banker. These type of people, are the people that take so much away from society, foreclose properties, repo products and just control the population. Ever since the 1970’s the income of the top 1% of society has increased by 275% compared to the rest of 99% of the economy which has only increased 40-60%. Those 1% of people are the greedy people who just cannot get enough money.
Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. This is an unfortunate outcome of greed, which has accumulated over the thousands of years of humanity. Poverty is caused by the lack of circulation of money. The GDP of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined which means each one of them has the same wealth as 8,142,857 other people. Money circulation is the key to a perfectly balanced society, because the money is not being accumulated in one bank account. Don’t get me wrong, with the people who are wealthy, they do deserve that money, but they should also invest it along the way, so that other people can benefit from it. Another example of greed causing poverty is employment issues. Mega-Companies like Walmart are, desperately trying to conserve money by reducing wages and slowly eliminating benefits. This is causing most of there 2 millions workers at Wal-mart to change their life, and prepare for even less wages. You might think the more successful a company becomes the more wealthy and wise, but the truth is that the more the moneyequal the more greedy.
Conflicts are generally caused by the unfair confiscation or destruction of property, motivated by greed. Look at our past, almost all of our wars have been an effect of greed being so powerful, to point where gaining land has more importance than a man’s life. The 100 Year war, between the English and French. World War II, Hitler’s conquest to control Europe. Even modern day wars: Saddam Hussein’s primary reason for invading Kuwait was to seize their gold reserves and oil wells, during the Iran-Iraq war. Greed has possessed men completely to a point where, they can’t make any decisions, without the factor of how it will benefit them. Greed has killed millions of people, due to negative intentions carried out by high commands. Sometimes it wouldn’t even accomplish anything. Look at the example of World War I, in total 37 Million people have died, for a few hundred kilometers of land.
Collapsing economies, poverty and armed conflicts, are the outcome of greed overcoming a man’s will to do good, and give in to the complexity of human nature. If the world did not have greed we would be stuck in a perfect world, where we would probably lack a sense of self vs. other, therefore stripping us from that ability to improve ourselves, and our world together. We wouldn’t want to expand territory, invent inventions, and even educate ourselves. Mahatma Gandhi once said: “There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.” It is obvious that humans are inherently greedy animals, and our hunger knows no bounds, but greed is essential to our survival. Greed is what is driving our race forward, it is the reason why we are where we are today. We cannot cure greed, nor can we ignore it. It helps us thrive and prosper, and we must make sure that we do not harm others with it.
