Greed is an essential human quality

Feb 10 • General • 6136 Views • 22 Comments on Greed is an essential human quality

Greed is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one’s self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power.

As a secular psychological concept:

greed is, similarly, an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs. It is typically used to criticize those who seek excessive material wealth, although it may apply to the need to feel more excessively moral, social, or otherwise better than someone else. (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed)

Well if peace keeping people decided to make a huge group and work together to advance as a community rather then just individuals then things would be a lot better. Greed isn’t necessary and it shouldn’t.

Also depends on your definition of greed also. Is it greedy to sacrifice your life for someone else because you value the life of others more than your own? I personally see us humans living in a game like monopoly that was created by the producers of currency.

Which currency’s sole purpose is to control and the idea of success and respect has to be earned through more currency was to prevent chaos that could be caused by non-rewarded force. Because god forbid that we all farm and hunt our own food and be purely independent and non reliant in our governments.

But couldn’t greed also be a means for the spread of struggle? Say for instance the latter portion of the Roman republic, there was a large gap between the wealthy aristocrats and the poor.

So much so that most of the land was owned by these aristocrats who lived in splendor while the rest of the citizenry struggled to eke out a living. The poor rallied behind Tiberius Gracchus, an aristocrat and champion who sympathized with their situation, to end the greedy land-grabbing that the aristocrats continually sought after. His success was short-lived after he used some rather illegal means (ironic considering that Tiberius used greed to quickly pass it through evasion of the law) to get the agrarian laws that limited the amount of land any one person could own to pass into effect. He was sought after and killed after his term expired and his brother, Gaius, stepped in. He too was killed and the greedy aristocrats reversed the laws that Tiberius and Gaius put into effect.

Both sides used greed, one individual (Tiberius’ haste in passing the much-needed reforms, outlook not good) and a group (land-grabbing aristocrats fared much better) but the group’s greediness didn’t help the progression of mankind, rather, it seems to have went out of control.

Greed works (consider the self-interest in the United States, lots of individual greed there) but it is limited so that it doesn’t infringe on other people’s liberties. But it doesn’t work in all cases.

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22 Responses to Greed is an essential human quality

  1. Jyoti choudhary says:
  2. Atif Pall says:

    Greed is absolutely generalized as a natural human phenomenon. It’s the wish we desire. Greed is a passion to achieve your temptations. Greed is an inherent quality of mankind, not an essential one. Greed leads us to become rich overnight and to do any unfair or unethical job to fulfil the dream, thus degrading our moral quality.In every religion, people have been advised to abstain from greed ,by offering everything to God through devotion and sacrifice.
    “Dont be greedy,be ambitious & passionate to access the desires you require “

  3. Amit Kumar says:

    I would like to go out of trend here. Desire is important in life, not greed. Let me make one thing clear first. GREED and DESIRE are two different things. Greed is Desire without any moral values, which, in turn, can be very harmful on personal front. Being desirous, being ambitious is a far more different than being greedy.
    Its somehow true that greediness can give more than you what you want, but it comes with insult, social nonacceptance and mental dissatisfaction at the end of the day. After a stage, people will just ignore you because of your greediness, which will lead to mental weakness and insanity. So, its good to be desirous rather than being greedy.

  4. oishi chatterjee says:

    None of us in life are satisfied with what we do have in our life. This situation gives birth to greed.By the word “greed” we mean that it is a tendency to selfish craving, grasping and hoarding. This is an essential human quality and i do agree to progress greed is essential but when it increases and takes a diffrent shape in an individuals mind it creates adverse effects.Greed makes a man blind and ruins one s life.

  5. Rohit Kumar says:

    First of all we should all know what is greed?greed is the desire to possess wealth,goods or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one’s self in other words it the desire to acquire or possess more than one needs.Greed is always an essential human quality because if we are not greedy about anything in life than we don’t have the desire to achieve something in life.We should always remember that we should extent our greediness into selfishness .At last i want to say that we should we greedy to acquire knowledge more and more that will lead us to better life and happiness.

  6. Sneha sinha says:

    Greed is not desire …It is just more than what you deserve or what you want..Hence a clear distinction needs to be maintained between greed and desire..Its not the greed for promotion that makes one to work hard but it’s the desire to excel that makes him work hard..Hence I don’t feel that greed is an essential quality..

  7. Vipin Sahu says:

    Greed is just “Wanting” .Wanting is normal human experiance.Greed is just wanting more and more,sometimes it is good or bad.Greedy person always has a desire for comfort living,wealth,status….but when greediness goes to money then it may becomes dangerous .Greediness is good but at limited stage.

  8. Debanki Mukherjee says:

    Greed can be described as an excessive desire to acquire more than what one needs with respect to material wealth.The degree of greed has certainly taken on a whole new level in the past few decades.We need to realize the fact that first we need to be human and without greed also we can survive.I do agree with some of the positive effects of greed given in this article but we know that greed have had some very negative effects on this world.

  9. Debanki Mukherjee says:

    Greed can be described as excessive desire to acquire more than what one needs or deserves ,especially with respect to material wealth.But the degree of greed has certainly taken on a whole new level in the past few decades.We need to realize the fact that first we need to be human and without greed also we can survive.I do agree that greed has some positive sides but they have had some very negative effects on this world.

  10. sumit mukherjee says:

    Greed is an essential human quality. I believe that it helps to grow our own quality because human being has a very common quality to compare himself to the others. So, if someone compare himself to some other person and try to make himself better then this is good. But excess greed leads us to ruin. Sometime it creates some revenge which is not a good thing. Greed for making himself better is good, but greed as revenge is not good.

  11. Manisha Chawla says:

    Greed is somewhere an essential quality of human beings because it makes a person grow better and better in his/her interested field. It forces humans to make their Dreams come true. But excess of anything is not good. So is with Greed. Excess of greediness makes a person become so very selfish that he/she forgets about everything even their families which is definitely not good.

  12. Akash Tripathi says:

    Definitely greed is an essential human quality. It keeps alive the desires in ones life……. motivates the person to achieve dreams. This desire is necessary for the survival and interest of the society as in absence of greed and desires no one will fight for better and life will just be like the saints in our so called Vedas.

  13. Urvashi Khanduja says:

    Yes, Greed is an essential human quality because without this growth is not possible. Here growth is related to an economy. Basically greed is desire for money, wealth, food etc. As I think when we demand or want more, we have to do hard work for that. This leads to our economic development. As we know that what we do or what we want should be in limits. Excessive greed is harmful.

  14. Kriti Das says:

    Greed is subjective concept and hence cannot be decided upon as an objective one.Being subjective ,its definition and implication varies from person to person.I still feel greed is one of the prime force that governs the human race to achieve excellence.Greed for good marks drive the students to work hard,greed of promotion at work place creates the competitive environment to excel.Greed for the attention ,love and care of near dear one make us care for them .Greed thus,either directly or indirectly is always around us,only the form of greed varies from person to person or from situation to situation.

  15. Neha S says:

    DESIRE is a good thing, it helps you to achieve better and good things in your life by your own hard work but, GREED is something that is really unacceptable by me. GREED is a desire that has been hijacked by wounds or ego, and people start affecting everyone else’s life in turn. Hence DESIRE IS NEEDED BUT GREED IS NOT WANTED.

  16. Seema Mishra says:

    Greed is not essential for the progress of humankind. Innovation, curiosity, and competition are what have fueled mankind’s progress through the ages. To say greed can assist the progress of mankind is perhaps true, but to say it is a requirement is to go too far in my opinion.

  17. preeti nisha says:

    Greed comes from desires which makes people avid. But being desirous and being greedy is what we need to secernate between. Greed is something which injures someone else’s freedom and we try to soothe our own needs over others esteem. But everybody is greedy for their own-self, some may dissent on this fact but its very true. But unless this greed is not infringing the freedom any other individual its beneficial,effective ,upright and secure. We have the most extravagant example from history- the story of raavana. he was a devotee of lord Shiva but his greed overpowered his ambitions which led to his destruction. Greed makes people stone-blind and thus they loose the power of vision to understand the difference between right and wrong. Be ambitious but let not be its your greed.

  18. Saheli Dasgupta says:

    I don’t agree that greed is an essential human quality. we must know to distinguish between being ambitious and being greedy. being ambitious motivates us to challenge ourselves and bring out the best in us, leading to a healthy enhancement in one’s productivity. but being greedy is like wanting more and more, never being satisfied with what we have till that want becomes an obsession and takes a troll over our morals, we then just ‘want’ it at any cost-by hook or by crook. Which mainly leads to unethical way of satisfying our hunger and pushing us towards a mentality quite close to that of a criminal. so, we should always be ambitious, challenge ourselves, not envy what others have and be greedy to have it as well, be satisfied with what we have, have a definite focus and ambition and push our limits ethically to achieve our goal.

  19. Dinesh says:

    I agree with the points made by you
    GREED makes a man to behave himself and lead to a way where he want to actually go

    so GREED is very very essential

  20. Pallavi sinha says:

    Article as a whole is totally appreciating and highlighting the positive side of human greeds.If anyone is chasing their dreams he/she should have a greed, positive thinking, correct strategy and strong will to achieve their desired destination.

  21. akanksha chaturvedi says:

    I would take it in a way that to be ambitious is ok but to be over ambitious that is to have greed is a BIG NO NO !

  22. BHarti PaNdey says:

    Really i agree with this post as it explains you about the essence of GREED as i believe GREED inspires us to ACHIEVE!!

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