2009 – 4th Grade 2nd Place Winner.

Eunice Lee, Kansas.

Greed or Giving; which has a greater impact on society?

Crack! Trees are being cut from the Amazon! Most of the land is cleared to become pastures for cattle. Now the Everglades are only half their original size! Waste runoff from local communities and water pollution from fertilizers that are used in farming are threatening the remaining parts of the Everglades. Heaps of ice from the polar ice caps is melting from global warming. Some scientists are sure the global warming has to something to do with humans.
The people, who are hurting the environment [the ones who know that they’re hurting the environment], including us, are acting greedy. Greed is all around us, even a small amount of greed is still greed. Of course it’s pretty easy to find greed, but sometimes it’s harder to find giving. After you give, you usually feel satisfied with what you have done but after you have been greedy you might think stuff like “give me more” or “more, more, MORE!” As you can see you probably won’t be satisfied in that way.
Perhaps a reason why people are reluctant to give is that they are afraid they will become poor [or that that they are poor]. I don’t believe that this is true, it isn’t very intelligent anyways. If you give out of pure kindness you probably are a hard worker. Then if you are a hard worker and you really work hard you probably won’t become poor. As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.”
Do you know which has a greater impact on society, greed or giving? Personally I’d hope giving would have a greater impact on society. Unfortunately, greed has a greater impact now. Just about everyone is a little [or a lot] greedy, from taking a bit too much stuff from the shelf at the grocery to cutting down the Amazon. If we all pitch in and help the Earth, maybe giving will win out over greed in the society.

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