essay on $$$

“When it’s a question of money, everyone is of the same religion.” How far is this true as society’s values today?

Interpretation: Society today has become overly materialistic, with too much greed and desire for money. Obsessed with money.

Paragraph One:
One example that proves this point is the mass media today, where privatization of the media has caused it to become commercialized. As a result, important social functions inevitably become corrupted into commercial functions – take for example the fact that the only thing the media spreads awareness are in its commercial advertisements. Prime-time TV in the US has almost 21minutes of commercials per hour. The media has also contributed to the materialism of society today, as these advertisements manipulates people and create imaginary needs, causing the lifestyle of extreme consumerism to become prevalent.

Paragraph Two:
In today’s modern society, material wealth is fast becoming more and more of a survival necessarily, with constant inflation and rising cost of living draining the incomes of the population and driving the rat race even faster. Furthermore, rising fuel and food costs amplifies this so such an extent that materialism inevitably becomes a means to survive instead of a symbol of greed.

Paragraph Three:
Taking a macro-perspective, perhaps one reason for this trend of materialism are when entire countries’ pursuit of economic growth have caused them to neglect other important factors such as social needs. Take for example Singapore, which despite the people having a high standard of living in terms of monetary value and physical aspects have long working hours and dangerously high stress levels which have led to strong criticism worldwide about the societal values being passed on the future generations.

Paragraph Four:
Yet, there are inevitably exceptions to this trend, such as the increasing trend of altruism and philanthropy today, where more and more people are beginning to spend large amounts of time and money to help those in need. Consider Angelina Jolin’s high profile adoption of African children, or Bill Gates constant donations to aid poverty and education all over the globe.