B2 – Upper Intermediate
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.”.
One must ask, where does this desire to accumulate things, keep them for yourself, and not share them with others stem from?
Listen to this audio and read the transcript to explore the psychology of greed.
Be ready to answer the questions that follow.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2024/ep-240118
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does “to pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mean, “Some people indeed have worked themselves up by their own bootstraps and get what they have because they worked hard.” Give 1-2 synonyms or similar expressions and use “to pull yourself up by your bootstraps” in your own sentence.
- What does “flip of a coin” mean, “They talked about how they controlled their own outcomes, they talked about how it was the decisions they had made that had led to their being ultimately victorious, and not that flip of a coin that randomly got them into that position of privilege in the first place.”? Give 1-2 synonyms or similar expressions and use “flip of a coin” in your own sentence.
- What does ”to take credit for” mean, “Interestingly, the rich players took credit for winning.”? Give 1-2 synonyms or similar expressions and use “to take credit for” in your own sentence.
Discussion Questions:
- Is greed ever good? Share your thoughts.
- Talk about your opinion on this, “It’s not greed itself that’s bad, but the things we’re greedy for.”.
- Share your thoughts on this, “We’re genetically built to want things that increase our social status.”.
- When someone feels financially better off than others translates into feeling better than others and the reason behind these feelings could be what money buys you, especially one thing: space. Share your thoughts on how well-off people don’t need others in their lives as much because they can afford to be in their own private bubble.
- Talk about an instance you think you got a little greedy. How can it be justified?
2 replies on “The Psychology of Greed”
1. Greed would be good if people only used it to improve themselves or society. But the opposite would also be bad for society because if nobody had any aspirations in life, there would not be any progress. The problem is that greed cannot be controlled by oneself and once a person realizes that they can get more power or money, they will fight to get more and more.
2. I suppose that the sentence means that it is good that everyone wants to improve themselves, because it will result in a benefit to society, in the sense that society does not need to worry about a person who is capable of living by their means. The problem arises when these people want to get more than what they need, and they will do anything just to get it.
3. It is obvious that no one wants to live below their possibilities, and everyone would like to keep a high social status. Depending on the circumstances and the one’s effort, this social status can be achieved or not. For example, in some cultures or countries such as India, there will be impossible for some people to step up a new level in the social status.
4. People thinking in that way are completely wrong. Those people can buy almost everything. But there will be also things that money can not pay, such as friendship or health. What is more, these people know that they are alone, and they are more unfortunate than those who have less.
5. I do not have any particular experience to tell. Throughout my life I have been looking for improving little by little my labor conditions or position in the company. And when I got my aim, I was alreadt looking for another one better.
Good job answering this lesson’s discussion questions.
Take a look at some revisions you can make in these sentences:
Keep writing!