The cycle of greed

[John Miller]

After we recently went over the Great Depression and seeing how the economy is falling yet again, I've gained interest in what causes this to happen over and over again. From what I have found, it stems from one of the many emotions a person has. It is one of the more dangerous emotions in people, and also one of the hardest to understand and control.

Greed

Greed is the excessive desire to acquire or possess more than one needs and deserves.

The cycle of greed is the term used to describe the rise and fall of economic standings due to a desire for something more when things get cheap and are en-mass, which was usually caused by the last fall in economy, making it a repeating cycle. This two part article here defines it http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/200...

http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/200...

The current fall in the economy stems from new homeowners and banks, where people taking huge loans from banks to buy houses, then being unable to pay them off in the allotted time, their house is foreclosed and the bank loses a large sum of money. As this begins to happen more and more, the total value of houses begin to drop, as the foreclosed houses are sold at very low prices.

This causes more repercussions and has led us to the state we are in today.

What can we do to end this recession? and if so, how can we stop this cycle from repeating itself?

[Halle Gitelson]

i agree completly with everyones comments on this subject. The main issue is that people are buying things that they cannot afford in the long run. They are buying on either impluse or just not thinking ahead financially which causes them to struggle. Even though we dont know how things pan out in our lives,we still need to think of the "What if" questions, just to secure ourselves.

[whitney cummings (caleo)]

I agree that greed is a major problem. People often times only think short-term, not long-term. For instance, if you were financially comfortable before the resession, you might have bought a house on the beach or a new fancy car of some sort and could afford it just fine. But now, not only are you struggling to pay the necessary bills, but the bills for the splurges you made prior to the recession. Given, you dont always know when events like this might happen, but people go in way over their heads without thinking of how it will affect them later.

[Phil Schroeder]

People tend to be doing well, and they out do themselves. For example, purchasing a house they know they can't ever afford. In the end, the only thing that comes out of it is both parties (homeowner and banks) loosing.

[Nina Kocko]

I agree that greed can be playing a major role in this recession. Before the recession, some people may have had the money to buy whatever they want, and however much of it they wanted. Now people are taking huge risks to still feel the superiority over others that they felt they had before when they had a lot of money. These risks just burry us even farther down into this recession.

[Connor McWard]

I'm not so sure it's greed, I think its just selfishness. People don't want everything thing, they just want things for themselves, and that's what's killing us.

[Chloe Hipchen]

I agree that the recession is caused particaially by greed but at some point we need to realize that the stupid people of america shouldnt be running things.

[Mike hoffman]

I agree with that, it has to be greed. i mean if everyone shared, which wont happen, everyone would be better off!

[Emily Fujii]

I think that people should only buy things that they know they can pay back. If people don't buy just to buy our economy would be so much better than it is now. People just need to realize that they can't buy everything or anything that they want.

[Kevin Gosiewski]

I agree with everyone here. Greed is a major source for this recession. Just like those cartoons depict teenagers, they always seem to want stuff.

[Ryan Kelly]

People are never satisfied with what they have. They always want more. People are greedy that way. Greed is never a good thing to have. Be thankful for what you have. Some people don't have anything. So don't ask for more and just be happy with what you have. For the problem with our economy, I really don't know the reason for this, but I do know it is mainly because of the war we are fighting in Iraq right now. Everything is being lost and these are extremely hard times for everyone.