What causes greed? In the long course of human history, the following factors
could cause greed: excessive desire for power; especially political power, for
possessions, for wealth, and for precious things. Greedy people always want more
than they need or deserve, and they are likely to pursue their targets by all means.
In China, Empress Dowager Cixi was a good example. Her political ambitions
expanded after the death of her son, Emperor Tongzhi, in 1875. As a matter of fact,
from 1861 till her death in 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi controlled the state power.
Emperor Tongzhi was six years old when he was appointed to be the successor of his
father, the late Emperor Xianfeng. Emperor Tongzhi was too young to handle
national affairs; therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi sat behind a screen to help the
young emperor to make important decisions, and wielded the actual power of the
country. Her greed made her to choose a five-year-old nephew to succeed Emperor
Tongzhi as the country’s new emperor; therefore, she could keep controlling the state
power. She only cared about herself, and totally disregarded the country’s long-term
development. She nearly caused China to fall into subjugation.
According to the Bible “2 Samuel 11”, David, the King of Israel, ignored that he
already owned everything; still, he desired to own Bathsheba, the beautiful wife of
David’s soldier, Uriah. Therefore, he designed the murder of Uriah, and then he took
Bathsheba as his fifth wife. King David’s strong lust of other’s belongings led to his
greed.
When Japan invaded China in 1937, the Japanese Army claimed that in three
months they would beat up China and would force the Chinese government to
compromise. In 1895, Japan already seized Taiwan as a trophy from the “Treaty of
Shimonoseki” and occupied the huge land of northeast China in 1931. Still, the
Japanese government was not satisfied with these. In 1937, the Japanese army
attacked Nanjing, China’s capital at that time, and brutally massacred civilians.
Japan’s invasion was like a python that dreamed to swallow a gigantic elephant.
Instead of conquering China in three months, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall is not only to commemorate the three hundred
thousand victims but also to remind people of the world to avoid similar tragedies that
are caused by nationalistic greed.
To make money, dishonest companies produce bad foods such as toxic
cooking oil and sell it to consumers. This is a real incident happening right now in
Taiwan. Several famous cooking oil manufacturers were revealed to have added a
forbidden food coloring, copper chlorophyll, in their “100% pure olive oil” products. Some
other products have been found illegally added cottonseed oil, which is very cheap
but contained harmful the substance “gossypol”. Some products added food flavor
without using the real material; however, the label claimed that the products are 100%
pure olive oil. The cost of these materials is very cheap, but the profits they make by
selling these fake, toxic products are alarming, not to mention, the harm caused by
their products to the consumers’ health.
In the early 19th century, Britain completed the Industrial Revolution and was the
most powerful capitalist country in the world. To expand the market and to secure
more sources of industrial materials, British merchants smuggled opium to China.
The British merchants made huge profits, but the Chinese people lost their health and
money. The Chinese government tried to ban opium and eventually destroyed more
than one million kilograms of opium. As a consequence, Britain’s government
launched the Opium War against China. China was defeated and was forced to sign
unequal treaties with Britain. For China, the Opium War is a mark of shame, and for
Britain, the Opium War is a label of greed.
November 14, 2013, Barry Petersen, a CBS News Correspondent, reported that
“U.S. crushes six tons of confiscated ivory to send message to poachers.” According
to the report, “Africa’s elephants are being slaughtered at a record pace by poachers
who hope to get rich by selling their ivory tusks.” The ivory buyers mainly are
wealthy Chinese people and Petersen said that they “see ivory as a status symbol”. Every
year, the poachers kill approximately fifty thousands African elephants because of the
huge profits of selling the ivory. In Beijing, the cost for a pound of ivory is more than
one thousand dollars.
In people’s daily lives, greed is apparent every day. At the all-you-can-eat
restaurants, people always get more foods than they can eat. Dishonest people lie
about their income to take advantage of government benefits. Dishonest banks try to
cheat the customers by sneaking into their accounts and signing programs for them
without the customers’ approval.
Greed is a disease. Greed is a pathological way of life. It is very difficult to fill
the desire of valley. History is like a mirror. If humans learn some lessons of greed
from the history of past examples, they many be able to have a better attitude towards
their life and the world around.
