The greedy is always poor. Know the purpose and limit of lust. Francesco Petrarch. The sin of Greed was called the second of the seven deadly sins, because Greed gives rise to evil: anger, envy and crime. There is only one kind of justified greed. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” says the Gospel of Matthew. This can be understood this way: only an insatiable thirst for knowledge is justified. What is greed, where does it come from and is it necessary to fight it? Practicing psychologist Anatoly Malish answers the editor's questions. The sin of greed is often understood as personal attitudes - the desire to have more money, the reluctance to part with one's wealth, the thirst for accumulation and acquisitiveness. But even a non-greedy person sometimes commits actions that can conditionally be attributed to this sin - he spares money for himself or his loved ones. Sometimes this is justified by need or common sense, and sometimes it defies rational explanation. - Agree that the terms “greed” and “greedy” are now used quite rarely. Instead, as a rule, the words “greed” and “greedy” are used (Greedy - 1. Greedy, selfish. 2. Passionately desiring something, expressing such a desire (Ozhegov and Shvedov’s dictionary). In the same Ozhegov’s dictionary, you can find the following definition: greed - 1. Avarice, greed, 2. Excessive desire to satisfy one’s desire. It turns out that greed is defined as greed, and greed is actually equated with stinginess. Is this true between these terms? fundamental difference: Greed is the desire to get as much as possible, and stinginess is the desire to spend as little as possible. A greedy person cares more about increasing income, and a stingy person cares more about reducing expenses. It is not for nothing that S. A. Kuznetsov’s dictionary defines a stingy person as “excessively.” to the greed of a thrifty person who avoids expenses and spending in every possible way.” True, the end result is similar - an increase in wealth, but the methods of achieving the result are different. The term "greed" combines the first and second meanings. This personality trait includes both the desire to receive more and more new benefits, and the reluctance to part with accumulated wealth.. Another word from this list is “self-interest,” meaning the desire for personal gain, profit. - Can a greedy person be called thrifty? Close to stinginess, but a positive quality, are “thrift,” “thrift,” and “thrift,” which can turn into stinginess if they go beyond the reasonable and become an obsession. Thus, frugality is a completely adaptive and largely useful quality that allows you to take a more reasonable approach to the distribution of funds. Greed is insatiable and therefore destructive. It brings a lot of unpleasant experiences that have nothing to do with reasonable distribution, but only with an irrepressible thirst for acquisition and accumulation. In fairness, it should be noted that Greed, in a figurative sense, can also mean a strong desire, passion. For example: “greed for life”, “drink greedily”, etc. In this case, the basic emotion of greed becomes an indicator of the intensity of desire. - What is greed: a character trait or an emotion that is objective in nature and determined by the cultural traditions of a particular society? Greed, in fact, is not only a character trait, but also a feeling, that is, an emotion. All people experience this feeling more or less often, although few people admit to this weakness. There are seven main strategies for dealing with money: 1. Greed is the desire to get more.2. Stinginess is the desire not to give away anything from what you already have.3. Greed is the desire to receive more and give less.4. Breadth of scope - the desire to get more in order to then invest these funds in new projects.5. Thrift (thrift, economy) - spending money only on what is necessary, absolutely necessary.6. Generosity is the ease of spending your own money to help other people.7. Extravagance (wastefulness) –reluctance to save money, the desire to spend it easily. The origins of greed go back to very distant times in human history, when primitive people constantly lacked food and other resources. This quality is already evident in children. From an early age, you can see how children, taking toys and candies from each other, do not like to share their small valuables with other children or adults. People become greedy by trying to earn more and more money, pursuing a career or unnecessary purchases, or saving money for a rainy day. In literature, this human quality is quite accurately depicted by A. S. Pushkin in the work “The Miserly Knight”, and by N. V. Gogol in “Dead Souls” (Plyushkin). These writers showed how the passion for wealth from a completely understandable desire can turn into an obsessive overvalued idea (mania), which only harms a person in his life. It should be noted that the desire to stockpile is also characteristic of many animals. And some animals, for example, wolves, try to capture and destroy more than they need for simple existence. Such examples indicate that greed is not a human invention, but may have been inherited from distant ancestors. So, if you blame yourself too much for this sin and suffer from its presence, calm your inner monsters and do not torture yourself needlessly. Greed is not a vice alien to you, introduced into your consciousness by the evil one, but an ordinary human quality characteristic of all people. The most reasonable is “balance”, when a person strives to both earn money and spend it usefully. - What is worse, greed or extravagance? What is more correct to live “as a modest person or as a Caesar”? Yes, money makes a person freer, it gives him more opportunities, but it is just a means. The key question concerns the purpose for which the funds are raised. The worst and most primitive thing is if the goal and the means coincide, and a person makes money in order to earn even more. You can earn money to ensure freedom for yourself, to get more opportunities to realize your talents, to live more comfortably, to maintain health, to benefit people, etc. But you can strive for wealth for another reason - to devote yourself to the service of sin on a larger scale pride, gluttony, greed, lust and envy. You can consider different aspects of the attitude towards the sin of greed on the part of society, but here’s what is interesting: people in general tend to be lenient towards the manifestation of greed combined with extravagance, but always condemn the combination of greed with stinginess. That is, if someone “grabs” money beyond measure, and then spends generously left and right, then people will forgive him, but if someone, having received wealth, shows stinginess, then in people’s opinion he will receive the most unflattering assessments. - Do all people experience greed or is it due to certain character traits? Even if greed is not of a pronounced or criminal nature, grains of it still appear every now and then in the life of every person. If you look at yourself carefully and honestly, you will notice that it is not without effort that you pay off your debts, even if you have the money to do so. Maybe you once did not help a friend, sparing money, or did you deny yourself or your loved ones some small pleasure, calling yourself “frugal”, “thrifty” or “thrifty”? People are genuinely offended when they are called “greedy” or “stingy” when in fact they exhibit this character trait. The ancient Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca remarked two thousand years ago: “The poor want something, the rich want a lot, the greedy want everything.” Are greed and pride interconnected? When we see a person acquiring more and more wealth, this does not always indicate that he is mired in the sin of greed. It happens that greed masks another vice that rules in the soul of such a person, and the money that he collects is just a means that feeds a more significant sin for him, Pride. - IN.