Genius Research Essay

“Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence “ (https://diigo.com/0757t60). Capitalist America provides a deeper context of money; the means of survival is completely dependent on the “golden currency”. The social hierarchy of America, seen as non-existent in the political sense, revolves around the prosperity and the amount of wealth of an individual. Americans constantly compete against each other to gain social status and an aura of superiority. The desire to go from a low social status to a higher class is an important ideal of the American Dream. The pursuit of happiness and the will to become anything one wants excites Americans every day. Wealth, however, ties with immorality and continuously questions US citizens whether corrupting ethical behavior is worth the copious amount of money. Morality is void to wealthy people and is incessantly filled with possessions that money could supply. Because of the feeling of superiority and the careless lifestyle of the rich, money leads to a persistent immorality common to the wealthy.

Money, allowing the ones who possess it to manipulate others, leads to a feeling of superiority. People who typically have copious amounts of money have a tendency to cheat more frequently on basic tasks. Money has an effect on others and “sows mistrust. It ends friendships. Experiments have found that it encourages [lying and cheating]” (https://diigo.com/075ang). The relationship with money and morality shifts; the monopoly and wide variety of use of money encourages others to manipulate and take control of friendships, relationships, and family. In the Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is described as an unattainable fantasy that is only used to vitalize the hopes of Americans and strengthen their will to fight for wealth. The “unachievable dream” is expressed in the context of characters. Jay Gatsby, a new money socialite that lives in secrecy, is in love with Daisy Buchanan, a rich woman married to a wealthy man Tom Buchanan. Gatsby’s obsession for Daisy leads to an affair with both characters; Tom had already previously had an affair with Myrtle Wilson, the wife of an automobile mechanic. Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, being the richest characters in the novel, are all disloyal to their respective spouse. The immorality of cheating is connected to the superiority of the rich; the American Dream ties into the idea of the superiority. Novels like The Great Gatsby that believe the American Dream is unattainable unintentionally promote the rich as a “rare” and “special” type; their superiority is brought in by the common man’s “desire” to become wealthy and the realization of the difficulty the price of money came with. Money ties to the immorality of the rich by the Social Darwinist view of their superiority.

The careless attitude portrayed by the rich leads to immorality as well. In the social sense, rich people are seen as naive and careless. The carelessness is displayed in a new study “in organizational behavior from Harvard University and the University of Utah suggests an entirely different dynamic: the simple idea of money changes the way we think – weakening every other social bond” (https://diigo.com/075au6). The more wealth, the more one is consumed in it and slowly decreases their social bond with people. The careless attitude demonstrates that the communication of people is replaced by the paper currency, naively. Money seems to be a dream for most, yet “money...appears as the enemy of man and social bonds that pretend to self-subsistence’’ (https://diigo.com/075avf). The complete immorality, however, of a careless personna is the belief that money could economically erase all problems, leading to the belief that one could do anything and not get punished. The corruption of this common belief is that people who “primed to think of money consistently exhibited weaker ethics… they also framed their choices as products of cost-benefit analysis. ” (https://diigo.com/075avf). People with huge amounts of money to manipulate turn to judge morality based on economic advantage. Bootlegging, drug-dealing, and stealing could be considered “moral”. Daisy and Tom Buchanan from The Great Gatsby are also described as careless; they both have complete disregard of the feelings of others and ultimately focus on enjoying their money. This is also seen in aristocratic government, such as France, Russia, and Great Britain. The nobility seem careless and used their money to display their extensive amount of wealth and high class instead of helping the poor or paying taxes. The carelessness of the rich leads to immorality and the replacement of relationships with money.

The superiority and carelessness attributed to the wealthy are aspects that lead to the moral corruption of the rich. The rich fail to realize that “money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires” (https://diigo.com/0757t6).
Money is a possession of power, a constant reminder of the freedom to attain anything. Despite the economic advantage it gives, morality is the price for the currency. Although morality may seem important, many choose the path of wealth and trap themselves in an age of prosperous, solitary misery.