...125- L Lisa Reason The story: When Greed Gives Way to Giving. 1. The author first tells the factual story of Bob Thompson’s windfall and then discusses its meaning. What does she believe is the point, or importance of his story? The importance of this story is to show, Mr. Thompson, to be a kind, giving person and have a big heart. Not all people are selfish and greedy. Some rich people can be selfish and cruel to others, because of their status of wealth and what they stand for. I think he feels that he need to change this perception, of being in control and looking down at those who is not rich or not wealthy, because he is. Mr. Thompson is changing the way he had been, to a person who cares about people around him. Giving is a good feeling you get, when you give something to a person who is less fortunate. 2. I think generosity is a rare quality in today’s society. Yes, It is true, because, I myself is a generous person, I give to those who is less fortunate than others, For example if there is a homeless person on the street, or a person who is need of help, yes I will try to comfort them. Giving brings you a good feeling, a feeling you cannot describe, it feel good, and you will receive blessing from God for being this way. People cannot help how they ended up in the world, living on the street or living in a dream house. Just to know that there are special people like Mr. Thompson live in our society that will give a helping hand to the needy is great...
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...things he has done in the book and cross reference it to other texts. We'll start with when he declares ego or I to be holy. To start we have “Many words have been granted me, and some are wish and some are false, but only three are holy: I will it!” (Ayn Rand 95). Just with this line you can not really say if he is an egoist or not. However the lines he says next may sway us to believing he is. Equality 7-2521 states “I owe nothing to my brothers and, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do i live for them. I covet no man’s soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.” (Ayn Rand 96). This in my eyes is an extreme way to say I am the master of my soul and destiny, but considering the context of what he says to be an egoist statement. Well let’s compare it to a statement to an article called the soul of the individualist “The creator lives for his work, he needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself.” (Individualist, 2), These two statements both reference that an individualist or a creator as used in the soul of a individualist that they do not need another man to live. This gives a comparison between the two. However, this quote may change our standpoint. “Gaea is pregnant with my child. Our son will be raised as a man.”(Anthem 100). This shows he has mindset that he needs to raise this child. Also “When I shall have read all the books and learned my new way, when my home will be ready and my earth tilled, I shall steal one day, for the last time...
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...behind for their new homes in America, they had no clue what awaited them when they arrived. Jurgis Rudkus, a character in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, was one of those hopeful immigrants that left everything behind. Jurgis and his family left their homeland of Lithuania seeking the opportunities that the American Dream could possibly provide for them. When they arrived they learned that America is not like the stories, they found filth, death, and deception around every corner they turned. However, greed was their largest problem, some were able to make it, but when it came to Jurgis and his families...
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...Corporate greed, by definition, is when a company chooses to place significance on increasing profits in a way that harms employees, consumers and the environment. It occurs when making money becomes the only goal, and the other company’s social responsibility is ignored. There is some debate with companies over whether they are being greedy versus looking for the best business practice. How can one tell if a company’s practice is defined as corporate greed or if the company is just working to reduce costs in order to increase profit growth? How much social responsibility does a company have to society and the environment? An article written by Edmund Bradley, about the problem with corporate greed, gave a perspective on these questions stating that “However greedy or altruistic a business person happens to be, the institutions of the market channel his or her motivation to a social end. Business must serve society in order to thrive,” (Bradley, 2003). In order for a business to grow and expand, they need to make a positive impression on society. Especially in today’s market, with consumers focusing on what companies are doing to the environment and how to find ‘green’ products. Society want to know that the companies making millions of dollars are using their influence and power to do good things in the world around them. Another perspective, however, is that companies have to only focus on the growth and profit of the company. They should work to please shareholders...
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...feel their energies move to a solid place of calmness, love and compassion. Our love energy is stronger and more sustainable when we continue to offer it to another. "May everyone be happy and safe, and may their hearts be filled with joy." "May all living beings live in security and peace, beings who are frail or strong, tall or short, big or small, visible or not visible, near or far away, already born or yet to be born. May all of them dwell in perfect tranquility." "Let no one do harm to anyone. Let no one put the life of anyone in danger. Let no one, out of anger or ill will, wish anyone any harm. " " Just as a mother loves and protects her only child at the risk of her own life, we should cultivate boundless love to offer to all living beings in the entire cosmos. Let our boundless love pervade the whole universe, above, below, and across. Only our love will know no obstacles, our heart will be absolutely free from hatred and enmity. Whether standing or walking, sitting or lying as long as we are awake, we should maintain this mindfulness of love in our The Buddha has numerous teachings on love. By reciting these beautiful verses from the Metta Sutta known as the Discourse of Love one can feel their energies move to a solid place of calmness, love and compassion. Our love energy is stronger and more sustainable when we continue to offer it to another. "May everyone be happy and safe, and may their hearts be filled with joy." "May all...
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...Everyone has heard the saying; “nice guys always finish last,” at least once in their lifetime. Although it is commonly said, it doesn’t mean it’s correct; just because a person happens to be nice and a good moral person doesn’t mean they can’t lead a successful life. A general misconception is that it takes greed and selfishness in order to become wealthy, but that just isn’t so. It can be seen throughout society quite easily that one can be a first-class citizen without having to dive into the dark side, so easy that all one has to do is to drive through my cul-de-sac and meet my neighbors to see how wealth and a moral life are not mutually exclusive. One person that practically everyone in the world knows, has been keeping up with his morals while becoming one of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates. Bill Gates, or most wealthy people should feel a strong obligation to give and sacrifice even just a small part of their wealth to those who happen to be less fortunate. I have been able to see from personal experience, how wealthy people are able to contribute to society in a positive manner. Livermore California is a suburban town in the San Francisco Bay Area and is my home. Through living here, I have been able to witness how the wealthy go about their lives. My father, Gregory, has been able to build himself a fair amount of wealth yet he has never broken the law, taken advantage of people or been greedy. Before we dive into Gregory’s moral accolades...
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...throughout his life but he is most remembered for his classic Treasure Island. Greed is one of the human’s defective qualities that cannot be erased nor disregarded. Trust is being able to rely on someone without fearing betrayal. Adventure is needed in everyone’s lives, to live a life free of regret. The life of a hero is something everyone desires. Treasure Island is classic novel that proves it through its relatable themes, life changing lessons, powerful archetypes, and universal symbols. Without greed the world would be at peace, and as one, but since everyone desires something that they don’t have, such as wealth, power or fame, problems are created. Greed is an important and major theme that is presented throughout Treasure Island and our everyday lives. This amazing classic novel, illustrates how greed is a trait that leaves misery and death on its destructive path. The plot of this novel is based on finding pirate treasure and it revolves around the universal theme of greed. The adventure begins with Billy, a mutineer who fled with treasure from his previous crew to keep for himself. The Billy’s greed gets him killed and the treasure map to the whereabouts of the treasure ends up in Jim’s hands. As Jim, the protagonist of this story comes close to finding the immense treasure they’ve been looking for; the greed of mankind reveals its true form. Because of the pirate’s greedy and selfish ways, they could only think of themselves and not the “friends” they had lost along...
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...stakeholders – employees, customers, stockholders, and so forth; ethical behavior requires fair and honest treatment of all parties. The word ethics is defined as “standards of conduct or moral behavior.” The movie Wall Street, was the exact opposite of these definitions. The movie shows examples of hostile takeovers, insider trading, greed and unethical behaviors in the attempt to build fortune on the all mighty dollar. The movie focuses on the stock market and the way inside information is used to make decisions to build cash and profits at the costs of others. It portrays the decisions one may make when faced with the temptation of green gold. As Gordon Gekko said, “greed is good”. There are the obvious correlations that most people will pick out right away when watching this movie. This is the use of inside information to gain a position of advantage over the general public as previously mentioned. In the movie Gekko was interested in getting detailed information that only those in the firm of interest would know which would give him information as to whether a company’s position in the market would be favorable or unfavorable thus giving him an unfair advantage to either buy stock or sell stock currently owned. In the movie Buddy Fox was used as an accomplice to go out and find investments that were “sure” to make profits because as Gekko would say, “I hate losses”. Gekko and Fox were also involved in some hostile takeovers of companies in order to make money. Gekko...
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...with too much power. Animal Farm, like a metaphor, conveys a deeper level of meaning beneath the children’s story about animals on a farm. One main point Orwell was trying to show his audience is too much power can corrupt any government. This can be viewed through the character Napoleon. As the story progresses, the pigs gradually obtain more power, which they used to take advantage of the less intelligent animals on the farm. When the animals were weeding the turnip field, "They worked diligently, hardly raising their faces from the ground, and not knowing whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human visitors" (Orwell, p.52). This shows how Orwell was trying to warn the audience that no matter what the person's intentions are, power can corrupt anyone. Animal Farm can also be a fable that is used to teach lessons on morality. One lesson can be that greed brings out the worst in everyone. For example, the pigs were driven by their own personal interests until they became just as bad as their enemies. The first example of greed is when the pigs steal the apples and milk for themselves under the lie of saying it would benefit the whole farm. Squealer said, " Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole...
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...through was vital to his character. He faces situations that encompass good versus evil. Bilbo learns about loyalty, greed, courage, morality and how it can all make a huge impact. A common theme throughout the story is loyalty. Without the virtue of loyalty, the story would not have been as it is. Loyalty is often displayed by Bilbo as he never leaves the dwarves side. He constantly puts himself in...
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...unselfish giving. This is one of the reasons why a country is still not fully developed and not really reaches the good condition of the economy. Just as in the Philippines, it is a culture of a Filipino for having crab mentality- it is pulling down others who are improving from the status of their living; those people don’t want that others are improving or developing but then they themselves are not developing. These people are thinking only about their selves and not thinking about the negative effect of pulling others down. When it comes in extending help, many people helped with wrong motives, they usually extend help because of the expectation of a return more than what they give. This kind of help won’t result to the betterment of a country, since they will only help if they can assure of a return but if there’s no return for them they are seldom to extend their help. When we give with the expectation of receiving something in return we are not really letting go of what we are giving. If we do not let go completely, then we are still clinging to whatever we gave. We all know that there are very few who extend help without expecting for a return and it is done only occasionally and there are some now a days that they are physically helping but the desire and love to help is not really in them and there are also who extend their help because they are obliged to do so. There are beneficial effects when giving generously, giving feels satisfying, when you give without...
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...Government Greed Oil, stockholders, drama, racism, government and death are all words that come to mind when the Case Study of Caltrex are exposed. This controversy that occurred was one of the most horrific yet historic events in our pastime. This showed many examples of how management of companies has the responsibilities beyond normal duties to ensure a high return for stockholders. Investments should always carry high criteria before making the investment because people’s livelihood depends on it. In this case, stockholders Texaco and SoCal invested in an oil company named Caltrex to give them a high return of its investment although the trust was severed by racism and government greed lend to an end result of sense of unjust ethics such as care and virtue. Caltrex was an American oil company that operated several oil refineries in South Africa during a time of hatred and racism. Texaco and Standard Oil were jointly owned with Caltrex. It was under the Apartheid legislation which deprived the entire black population by giving them no rights at all. This included segregation of blacks and whites, blacks could not vote and were not allowed to socialize with white people. South Africa depended on oil for most of their energy needs and this was a crucial resource for them. The African law that was in place at that time established a percentage of the income be set aside for the government. This raised great concern with shareholders as they felt they were funding a nation...
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...Greed and abuse of power. These are two words that can describe any leader of today’s time period. Often, leaders use propaganda to get their people to do what they want for them. According to Eric Hoffer, “Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.” Propaganda is a biased misleading statement. When a political leader or anyone in general shares propaganda people don’t often believe what one may say. However, propaganda affects people and their thinking about life. Throughout the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, propaganda is used very similarly. Napoleon is the leader of the farm and squealer is his sidekick. Usually Squealer states, propaganda to the animals to get them to do work for Napoleon. Most of them time the animals listen to what Squealer says however it causes the animals to often feel very confused. Therefore, George Orwell shows that the common theme is abusing too much power by sharing false statements about other animals....
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...include very similar signs and amounts of symbolism in them however, both have their own special meanings to it. The Devil and Tom Walker includes signs of greed, as well as a completely different form of devil which is also included in Young Goodman Brown. In that story, symbolism is more focused on innocence vs. evil. Besides having numerous amounts of different symbolisms, still both contain a devil and some form of temptation. In the story of “The Devil and Tom Walker” it begins by explaining the life of Tom and his wife, giving us a preview of how their lives are and what it consists of. Tom and his wife are very greedy towards each other, as well as miserly. Greed...
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...FOX” and “GORDON GEKKO” played by Charlie sheen and Michael Douglas. Bud fox is a junior stock broker who wants to become rich. He came from an honest middle class working family while Gordon gekko is a ruthless millionaire and a mythical Wall Street player. The theme of the movie is greed for money. How our society is engage in unethical acts for the sake of money. Portrayal of Business World The movie portrayed the business world in a negative way especially brokerage business. Movie highlights the greed of businessmen to become richer and they can do anything for money. The characters in the movie are also greedy people who can do anything for the sake of money. Bud fox is a young man who belongs to honest family but just for the sake of becoming richer, he did an unethical act in the business for Gordon. Their behavior was compensated not with charitable giving, the dividing the wealth with those less successful, or innovation to serve humanity, but they are spending this black money for their luxury, private jets, prostitute and drugs etc. The movie is scattered with examples of many negative views and unethical acts, few of them are described below. The unethical act done by bud was that when he finally met with gekko, who was his mentor, he illegally shared secret information about an airline i.e. blue star airlines with gekko in order to impress him and make money. With the help of this information, gekko earns a lot of...
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