Blog Entry #15 - Expository Essay

Lisa Bui
Mr. Patrick Sullivan & Mr. Blake Stok
Language Arts & Social Studies
December 9th 2010

Greed or Need?

        Despite the fact that 75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a command economy, people rarely ask ‘why’? In a market economy individuals have the freedom to make decisions and earn profits, which also means there is a lot of competition. This type of economy appeals to quite a large amount of people, but for such a long time they have just been noticing its positive sides. Nevertheless, a market economy positively influences its citizens by allowing them to be creative and live a better quality of life, while at the same time it negatively influences them by causing greed and unsustainable living.

        A market economy allows people to make their own decisions and challenge conventional ideas with new and creative thoughts. In 1913, Henry Ford created the assembly line to accommodate the increased demand for the Model T – half of the cars in the U.S. by then were Model Ts. Accordingly, the invention of the assembly line has revolutionized automobile production by significantly reducing assembly time per vehicle, thus lowering costs. Furthermore, the invention later enabled Ford’s company to be the largest automobile manufacturer in the world due to the production of Model Ts. In short, the example above shows that in a market economy, people are highly motivated and therefore keep pushing themselves forward in order to achieve their goals. Creative inventions will provide people and future generations a better and more efficient life.

        At the same time, freedom in a market economy stimulates people to earn more profits – which may resemble greed. ‘“I have grasped too much, and ruined the whole affair. I can’t get there before the sun sets.”’ Pahóm in the short story “How Much Land Does A Man Need” by Leo Tolstoy is disturbed with this thought while trying to reach the starting point after spending the whole day marking his land without any concern for his ability or safety. Because the Bashkír Chief, who owns a vast amount of land, offers Pahóm the opportunity to mark as much land as he wishes before the sun sets, Pahóm starts with the breaking dawn without taking breakfast. He also keeps marking more and more beyond the land he actually needs. In the end, Pahóm accomplishes his goal yet he dies. Similarly, a market economy allows people to make their own decisions to earn more profits, in which there is much competition but that also causes greed. Since there are zero limits for wanting more, people are likely to become blinded and greedy. Once people are greedy, they can do anything to gain what they want such as corruption and bribes in the government, wars, killing, and other things which only lead to unexpected bad consequences.

        Together with competition, a market economy aims to make people consume more - which means the more people consume, the more unsustainably they live. Economic crisis in the U.S. is a striking example for unsustainable living – where it shows that the problem negatively affects the society, the economy, and the environment.  In the U.S., a high percentage of people are addicted to shopping in order to satisfy their greed, not their need. The habit results in high consumption, which is a negative effect on the environment. The more people consume unnecessary thing, the higher level of global warming planet Earth reaches. Meanwhile, since businesses always seek for more profits, inflation takes place and causes a negative economic problem – where the prices of the products increase while the qualities remain the same. For this reason, people strain themselves to work harder in order to earn more money, so that they are capable of consuming what they want; which explains why a high portion of U.S. citizens often build up stress, and this truly negatively affects the society by causing health problems, depressions in attitude and ways of thinking. In brief, a market economy causes unsustainable living where consumption, inflation, and competition are involved. 

        In conclusion, a market economy can benefit the citizens and damage them at the same time. Even though a market economy enables citizens to be open-minded to improve their quality of life, it’s also the cause for suffering in this world. It is reasonable that the modern world reveals many attractive sides and that people have to work hard in order to not fall behind but they should also consider the risks they have to take with the choices they make. Humanity keeps developing, intelligence keeps getting to a higher level, people keep approaching a better quality of life every day, but all of a sudden they forget that money is not the priority that determines their happiness. Money, power – they are fake satisfactions and will only last for as long as another ambition comes. And what will it take to satisfy the next ambition, or in other words, the next greed? People should not use their knowledge to benefit themselves only, but they should also know what they do now justifies future generations’ lives – which are their descendants. In short, the only way to make the world more sustainable where people can live an outstanding social, environmental, and economic life is that humans should be more educated and empathetic towards each other.