Friday, March 9, 2012



“People are becoming more materialistic. They are concerned with making more money and what money can buy.” What is your opinion on being materialistic? You should write at least 350 words.

     When we talk about materialistic, the word money will appear on the spot into our minds. Actually, materialism is not completely about money. The term materialism is a theory that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality, that all being, processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestation or results of matter. Have you ever thought that materialism will be an asset to a country. Materialism also affects in the domain of economy, individuality and also in moral beliefs. Shall we discuss about it? Let us start it now!

      In this century, money is compulsory to a person to earn his or her life in this developed country. Money is necessary in all niches of a person’s life as everything needs money. Nowadays, there are many things that an individual desires on as he or she intends to own all of the valuable things. However, to achieve what they are fancy, they grasp to the saying, ‘Poverty waits at the gates of idleness’. They have to strive on doing their work to obtain extra money in order to purchase the things that they are willing to as the saying goes, ‘Money talks’. Besides, money begets money. Since they have money, they tend to create more and more money as they are becoming dissatisfied with their standard of living. Many consumerists said that they found happiness and enjoyable. Nonetheless, do not count your chickens before they hatched. Does materialism cause happiness? Materialism is related to personal well-being, life satisfaction, and happiness. To date, a substantial body of research in both consumer behavior and psychology suggest that highly materialistic individuals appear to be less happy (an affective indicant of well-being) and are more unsatisfied with their life compared to individuals with lower levels of materialism.

       Bill Clinton used to say that in the new economy; information, education, and motivation are everything. In today’s knowledge-based economy, what you earns depends on what you learn. Now let me ask you a question, are you aware that materialism has an immense effect on economics? Let us discuss about it. What is the definition of economy? Let me share it with all of you. Economics is a science that studies on how society share their resources to meet their needs. In a matter of fact, some economists insisted that materialism cannot affect economy as economy is created because of the existence of materialism. It only affects communism and socialism. Moreover, at a microeconomic level materialism tends to increase the wants which drives the economy forward. There is a quote stated that unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists. Economists at Hoover Institute,Stanford University state that the consumers spend nearly 70% of the US gross domestic products(GDP). GDP is the calculation for total economic output. Consumers are forced to spend their non-refundable income to obtain more goods due to an approach towards the economic materialism. As the demand in market is surging, so the firms have to supply more products to meet the demand of the consumers that renders into economic growth. This will unleash more business opportunity. Therefore, this boosts the spending which consequently increases the GDP. When the economy is dampen, either country or the people shall get benefits from it.

       On top of that, materialistic seem can turn one’s behavior and moral beliefs. A polite and humble person can transform the manner into a rude and arrogant one. Thus, he or she is willing to do anything to get hold of what they intend to do or what they want, encompass crime.  It is true that money is the root of all evils as it is the main cause of wrong doing and problems. The level of crime in the society will increase if people keep on being materialistic. Therefore, these negative attitudes will affect the personality of a person. An Arabic scholar used to say that ‘a thing that being done regularly, then it will not being just a habit but eventually come up as a compulsory’. However, Roland Gift, a wise man said, ‘I think I am a materialistic person, value what it takes to make a car or build nice house, but how it changes people depends on how they react on it.’

       As a conclusion, money appears to have both positive and negative effect on our behavior. On the one hand, it encourages self-sufficiency and hard work, but on the other side it discourages some positive social interaction. Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learnt to manage our materialism and carnality properly, they are still entangled with the desire for ownership. In addition, materialism also contributes much in the nation’s economy. Spending power of society will boost economy to an advance level besides creates more business chances for booming trade. Materialism also influences one’s behavior and moral beliefs. So, how much do materialism prevails or affects your life?

12 comments:

hamba ALLAH said...

assalamualaikum..in last paragraph, you have a wrong spelling for 'behaviour'..tq

hamba ALLAH said...
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humairamahpa said...

Salam..

-what do you mean by "It only affects communism and socialism. " (paragraph 3)

really enjoy read your essay..
keep it up..

Trio A's said...
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Trio A's said...
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Trio A's said...

salam...
good essay, no doubt about it....

i fully agree with your point that materialism can affect economy, personality and belief....

hope you can do better next time...
best of luck...!!!

Trio A's said...
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Trio A's said...
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Trio A's said...
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~WARM~ said...

Salam 'alaikum.
congratulation to all three of you!!We agree that materialism can affect individual and society as there are many people intend to betray their own relative just because of money.That indicates on how money can control people action and mind.This is because money can buy us materialism.As a result, they are many unreasonable thing that occur in our society such as murder among siblings in order to get property.Keep it up buddy!You can do it!

bigbrother&kids=) said...

materialism can lead to corruption.our country is facing this problem today..