UNITED STATES—Oh, America it seems so many of us are driven by greed. Yes, you heard my correct, greed one of the seven deadly sins. When I refer to greed I’m not referring to stuff, I’m referring to money. Sometimes it seems people will do any and everything to have more money or to hold onto the money they have. It begs a large question: why? It could be the direct result that we live in a capitalist country where money dictates a ton of our behavior, where we can go, what we can do and who we can do it with.
Not to mention that money seems to be sign of power, the more money you have the more power you can wield America. However, let’s go back to that issue of people fighting tooth and nail to get their hands on money. I mean the pandemic put many Americans in terrible financial situations. People lost their businesses, people lost homes; so many Americans lost their livelihood as a result.
With that said the government did indeed step in and do the right thing by offering financial assistance in the form of an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits for several weeks. That was later extended to an additional $300 a week in unemployment benefits, at least until the month of September 2021. Smart people would have utilized those funds to pay off bills, debt and have savings for a rainy day. However, so many Americans got greedy, too greedy and resorted to committing fraud amongst other things to get thousands, in some cases millions of dollars from the American government people.
Like seriously, what the hell people. It also echoes all the issues with the Paycheck Protection Program where celebrities and business owners and those not business owners indulged in claiming money they didn’t need and used it to purchase lavish items and live a lifestyle they were accustomed to or one they wanted to get accustomed to. So many people committed unemployment fraud taking money from workers who absolutely needed it, but couldn’t get it because people were fraudulently filing claims in their names and they had no idea about it.
Same with the PPP that saw people getting thousands or millions of dollars they didn’t need, while the small businesses who needed such funds couldn’t get their hands on that money and as a result went out of business. Where does it stop? When does it hit people that money should NOT be the driving force of your behavior and actions? There are companies that are scared sh**less of workers forming a union that would prevent them from just walking over them and not enacting some sort of policies and rules that provide works with more protections.
Could it be the fact that so many Americans continue to see the rich get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer? I don’t know I would hope that is NOT the case, but it could explain why so many people with little money go to extreme lengths to gain more and while those with so much go to extreme lengths to keep what they have and to keep earning what they have. Hell, look at all the companies that produce goods overseas in a direct result to cut down the cost of workforce labor. Is it the right thing to do?
No, but companies do it all the time, why aren’t more restrictions in play to prevent such things from transpiring? It is called corporate greed, so when you have money you can tend to do what you want. As long as it’s not considered illegal you are good to go. Please understand with greed that as quickly as money comes, it can quickly disappear. You can have loads of money one day and with the snap of a finger everything is gone. There is such a thing as having too much. The problem is no one is willing to call that out.
Written By Zoe Mitchell
