2009 – 7th Grade 4th Place Winner.

Erik Loscalzo, New York.

Greed and its Effect on Society

Greed has a greater effect on society than giving. Although giving to others has a major impact on society, greed can destroy people’s lives and cause intense hatred and feelings of revenge for generations to come. Many examples from our local history on Long Island support this statement. In the local newspaper on Long Island over the past few years there have been two people whose greed led to their downfall at the expense of many innocent people.
Madhoff, a criminal and native from Roslyn, New York was recently exposed for taking billions of dollars from people, businesses and banks all over the world. He pretended to invest their money at high interest rates while he was spending it personally on many homes, yachts and other expenses for himself. He even involved his own family members in his scheme. Some unfortunate people invested all their money in him, trusting him with their life savings. Now in their retirement there is no money left for them to live on. One man even committed suicide when he realized how much money he had lost. The impact on innocent lives and the distrust of society at large will be enormous. Even the children of these victims will be affected for all of their lives. One family can no longer pay for their children’s education.
The superintendent from the Roslyn’s School District was also sent to jail a few years ago for similarly stealing from the school district. Money raised from taxes, people’s hard earned money, that was supposed to pay for the children’s education and teacher’s salaries was stolen by this man. The people of Roslyn were angry. They and their children suffered on account of one man’s greed.
Both of these examples became well publicized news and created distrust and anger for the innocent people affected and for society at large. Although the majority of people are probably honest, these criminals, who are willing to put others lives in danger, create a constant concern for the rest of us. We can only hope that the legal system will impose severe punishments on these criminals who have been so greedy.

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