Greedy and Selfish

Today, people are becoming more greedy and selfish. Some people think we should return to traditional values and show respect for family and local community. To what extent do you agree or disagree? 

Under the profit-driven economy, people nowadays tend to be more selfish and require more than they should. Therefore, some people propose to recovery the old tradition including being more family or community conscious. Personally, I hold the position that people should hold a balance between the self-interested and the selfless for the families and communities.

To begin with, although some old conception is not applicable in today’s society, some basic values such as being family or community oriented which represent altruism is still essential for well-fare of modern people. The main reason is that it is from families and communities that people whatever in the past or now can get direct emotional or financial support. To some extend, only by contributing to the groups to which we belong to can human being gain their fair interest. And the community interest is often the best way to take care of personal rewards.

On the other hand, egoism is not necessarily bad for the survival and prosperity of the whole society. For example, a merchant may sale good quality products at a lower price for gaining more customers. An employer might pay employees high salaries to make them work harder. Wealthy people might donate charity to the poor to lower the crime rate and make their living environment a safe place to live. So sometimes a little capitalistic greed is a good motivator to get people to invent great thing so that they get personal rewards.

In conclusion, both selfish and selfless can generate boons for humankind, so the key point is to ensure the individuals’ needs lie in the community’s long term need so that both needs can work together. Otherwise the rampant greed and the over generosity will impede both progress of both.

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