With commercial hype, media advertising and television marketing, brand names of
products have become popular with people often competing with each other to wear
the latest designer brands, or to use the latest mobile phones, or to drive the
most popular car and the like. Amidst this advertising and hype there are a few
who remain contented and satisfied with what they have but there are others who
do not hesitate to break rules because of their uncontrolled desire to be trendy
by hook or by crook.
Greed is of two types. One is the uncontrolled desire to accumulate more funds
and the other is the never-ending desire to wear and use what is in style with a
frivolous excuse that being trendy uplifts one status. In this greed for status
individuals forget that status is not determined by what one wears or what car
one drives but by the sincerity, honesty and kindness of a person.
The second type of greed is that of wanting to have more and more money. There
are people in our society who have so much but yet have no qualms in breaking
rules to make even more. Is it not common to have delivery notes signed without
actual delivery of goods? Is it not common to supply low-quality goods or to
under-supply goods after greasing the palms of relevant storekeepers and
procurement managers? Is it not common to arrange theft from Government stores
and to have items, insecticides and other commodities then supplied to local
shopkeepers who buy such goods despite knowing that these are stolen? Rules are
flouted simply because the individual wants to have enough for himself, his
family and the generations to come, the generations who may not even remember of
his existence.
This reminds me of a story told of a rich man who was not sure if he had made
enough wealth to last his lifetime and the lifetimes of his generations to come.
He asked a palmist to foretell his horoscope and was told: “You have so much
wealth that it will last up to seven generations to come after you.” Far from
being reassured, the rich man broke down and started crying. When asked why he
was crying he said, “What will happen to my eighth generation?”
The simple adage, “You can’t take it with you” never comes to the minds of
transgressors, many of who also indulge in trivial pursuits like gambling,
alcohol and women thereby further destroying their status. All religions talk of
life after death and in one way or another mention that wealth destroys the fool
who seeks not the beyond! For the greedy, life beyond is beyond comprehension
because the mind is fully tuned to making more money.
In this column last week I mentioned that it is not a sin to be rich as long as
one’s livelihood is earned honestly. However the situation changes when the
desire for making money is done by breaking moral conduct. It is wrong to
exploit one’s staff through meagre wages because you want to be rich, it is
wrong to deprive your family of a reasonable lifetyle simply because you want to
accumulate funds, it is wrong to deprive your children good education just
because you don’t want to part with your money, it is wrong to deprive your
parents good medical treatment just because good medical care costs more if one
can afford to pay for these but decides to be a miser not wanting one’s bank
balance to go lower.
The love of money is the root of all evils and it is correctly said that when a
rich person decides to become a miser he ironically deprives himself, more than
anyone else, the charm and opportunity of living a fine life. A greedy person is
not very different from a person who at meal times fills his plate with bits of
everything laid out on the table. He knows he will not be able to eat all of it,
and if he does it it will create digestive problems. Nevertheless, he will do it
again and again. Avarice is a sickness that can only be controlled by will
power. If one does not have the will power and succumbs to an illicit desire for
wealth, one could well be signing one’s own warrant to face public ignominy.
What the greedy do not realise is that for their mean attitude they pay a cost
much more expensive than any amount of money, a cost that contented people with
very little money do not have to pay. In their blind yearning for wealth, they
pay this cost by way of sacrificing their peace of mind, status in society and
even respect from the family because they are easily categorised as being part
of a group that only think about themselves, a group that is enslaved to a
lifestyle where success only means making more money. Worst still this category
also earns the wrath of God who detests greed and misers!