Social Criticisms of Marketing's Impact on the Society

Original Statement:

“You are what you own: “greed is good””

“The measure of success is money and what you buy for it”

Counter-Reasoning:

There are many reasons why the two statements are not true. Fir instance the actual wordings of them are debatable, because they are packed with words that are too vague. Also matters are further complicated by the vast amounts of opinions, views, and human characteristics and life experiences.

The first statement is not true, in the negative connotation of the word “greed”. In that sense, greed is a characteristic, where the greedy person always wants more and more, and is normally not willing to support the needy, and the poor, only if he or she thinks that he or she can benefit from doing so. This is obviously something bad, because he does not really contribute in any ways to the welfare of the community, community in the broader sense, around him. He also does not do anything to make the world surrounding him a little better place to live in.

Sometimes you are not on your own. For example, if a person wants to found a new company, if he or she has a sound business plan, that is base on research and realities and not just imagination, than he or she might be able to obtain capital from, loans, funds, venture company, or from other sources. Families also help their members, mostly parents their child, or children.

The measure of success is not always money and what you buy for it. There are people of different professions who do not earn much, but are still very successful in what they do. One perfect example of this would be a sportsman who achieves a lot and wins an Olympics gold medal, in a sport, like archery. This man or woman surely is successful in the profession he or she has chosen, but will never become rich out of it. Another example is a charity organization. The manager of it might be very successful in obtaining funds and monies, but will probably never become rich by being able to.

Some very successful entrepreneurs, who earn a lot of money, are sometimes living simple lives. This means that they do not have fancy houses and cars, and do not wear extravagant clothes and jewelry. One example of this is the head and owner of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet, the officially second richest man in the world.

There are also professions which actually focus on charity, the opposite of greed, like the different religions and their numerous denominations. The most well know of them to us is obviously Christianity.

This opinion might be a one that is changing and is true at one time and is false or partially false at another stage of someone’s life. A young graduate of some higher educational institution, who is just stepping out in the world of working, and having a job, might focus on moneymaking and earning his or her own possessions, like a place of accommodation, and means of transportations, for example a house or an apartment and a car or a van. As he proceeds on, when he or she has everything that he or she wants, that person starts to give some money to the poor and needy. Also there are people who are simply more caring than others and give to charities more often to begin with, which might intensify as he or she grows older. There are also people who earn a given amount of money and just, because they are good and caring give most of there money away. These types of people will obviously never get rich, but at least will feel good.

Now we have come to another very important question; how should the word “success” be defined? For some people it is simply the measurement of the pool of money that someone possesses or earns. Others describe it by how much power they have. Still others say that it is merely how happy and content with one’s life someone is. Some people consider success as a combination of all, or some of these factors.

This case of success is even more problematic if we consider that it always depends on the situation and type of era and place also. For instance, coming back to the college or university student case, we can easily see that someone who is gets all As during a year is obviously much more successful than someone who barely passes all his or her classes, regardless of the money someone earns. In times of wars that tears apart and destroys a country, it is sometimes a success even just to stay alive. Someone who simply wins or inherits a vast amount of money or is born into a rich family can never be considered successful, only if he achieves something in his or her profession.

There are many reasons why I don’t agree with the second statements quoted at the beginning of this assignment. Among the statements, as you could see in the body of the paper above, were the fact what the individual and his of her environment considers successful. The times, place, situation, and the achievements are also key factors of determining who should be considered successful. As to the statement statement of you are on your own; it cannot be the case all the times. The main purpose of my arguments where to show that the validity of these statements relies on many, and often quite complicated matters, that is, they are not true, because generalization and stereotypes are not the way to treat the problem of wants and materialism.