Greed destroys morality in people just as easily as a knife cutting through butter. When something of worth is involved, such as money or any material wealth, and greed takes over, it clouds judgement and morality. This causes many incidents such as bribery, smuggling, and thievery to occur.

Henry James’ novel, The Wings of the Dove, exhibits how greed can easily warp a person’s morality. They just don’t seem to care. In James’ novel, it is very clearly shown that money is the main thing that anyone cares about. In the first chapter, Mr. Croy, Kate Croy’s father, disregarded the fact that he would never see his daughter again if she were to accept the money given by her aunt. Instead, he pushed her towards it, with the intention of having her funnel the money to him in secret (James 6). This lack of integrity and care for honesty proves how much greed can cloud our judgement.

In the work force, greed strikes hard and fast. People are easily influenced under the promise of getting something out of a situation. There is a reason why there are so many corrupt people in high ranking jobs, such as politicians and police officers. Though they may have started out with a good moral standard for their profession, greed may have got to them, forcing them to succumb to their greed and being corrupt, just to make a little extra money.

In the article, “The Definition of Morality”, written by Bernard and Joshua Gert, morality is defined as, “descriptively to refer to certain codes of conduct put forward by a society or a group (such as a religion), or accepted by an individual for her own behavior” or “normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational people” (Gert Web). Things such as telling the truth, or helping someone out, is fueled by morality. But these things can be forgotten when greed enters the picture. Then, people will do whatever it takes for them to benefit from it.

Greed lives inside all people, whether they admit it or not. One of the reasons why everyone lies or cheats or steals is because they have something to gain from it. It could be anything, ranging from a child’s toy to millions of dollars.

But that’s not what people want to hear. Greed has become such a huge part in people’s lives that it can be hard to even identify it anymore. It seems to have integrated itself so much that it’s now a daily part of living. This would explain why so many bad things happen each day. Because the morality of the people is blinded by greed.