The Pursuit Of Wealth

Contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. Those who pursue wealth fall into temptation, harmful desires, ruin and destruction; for the love of money is the root of all evil (The New American Bible). This excerpt from the bible still holds true today. Some people in their effort to become wealthy will do anything to achieve wealth. The society today still equals wealth with power. Wealth in itself is not evil, it is the love of it that is evil. The love of money is what leads to corruption, embezzlement, human trafficking, drug smuggling, gambling, robbery and other social vices. Dashiell Hammett moral message about the relentless pursuit of wealth is that the relentless pursuit of wealth …show more content…
Miss Brigid tells Spade that the story she had given them was just a story she made up, therefore is no truth to it. Sam Spade gives her the answer that reflects how important the money was for them, and not her situation. He tells her, “we didn’t exactly believe your story, we believed your two hundred dollars” (Hammett 33). Even though Spade tries to justify the reason why they accepted her money by saying “I mean that you paid us more than if you had been telling the truth, and enough more to make it right” (Hammett 33). This attitude toward money is still prevalent in the society today. The lies and story people say today might not be the one they tell other people, instead, it is one they tell themselves. I am going to play the lottery and win the power ball. Some people lie to themselves because they do not consider the fact that the overall odds of winning $2 in the lottery is 1 in 38.2 and the odd decreases as the money increases. Some people keep lying to themselves and they keep playing. Their action can be seen as greedy. Greed destroys any hope people have for contented lives, yet they cannot give up the chase. They are driven by uncontrollable yearnings that eat away at their humanity and contaminate relationships (The Maltese Falcon Handout). A proof that the society has not morally progresses when it comes to money from the 1920’s is …show more content…
All the ugliness in the world can be attributed to people’s attachment to money, and the power it comes with. The unequal distribution of the world’s wealth and the drive to acquire all the world’s natural resources and money, plus the lust for power has led to a world of wars, paranoia, distrust and so forth. When we look at the things happening around the world today, we can see the effect of the relentless pursuit of wealth around the world. Corruption and embezzlement are the order of the day in most African countries. Not long ago, some African countries were under dictatorship who were in charge of the country’s economy. After the people in those countries revolted and succeeded in bringing those dictatorship government down, the price of those revolutions are still not yielding much hope as the people has expected. The democratic representatives the people of those countries have elected are mostly the same people who worked for those dictatorship rulers who were tumbled out of power. The new representatives now have the access to the nation’s wealth and all they see is a democratic way to enrich their pockets like never before. While some might argue that religion is the major factor that lead to the instability in those countries I will argue that the economy is the major factor of the instability in those countries. If everyone in those countries