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How Does Money Define People?

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How Does Money Define People?
Americans revolve around money. They cannot live without it. In order to survive and/or live a good life one needs money. In the United States wealth classifies people. If one is rich, one is high class, if one has nothing, one is considered lower class. Why does money define the people? I agree with Lewis Lapham's view of " the American faith in money" because everything he states is factual, and I myself have experienced it.

People in America idolize money as if it had controlled over them. The vast majority of

Americans believe that having money is part of the American Dream. Although not everyone sleeps on piles of Benjamins, everyone wishes they did. Americans' obsession with money is actually quite incredible compared to other places. "The Soviets honor the holding of power;… Europe and Asia manage to balance their desire for wealth against other claims of the human spirit." Americans tend to go out of their way to make money. The difference between Americans and other places is that the Americans will betray what they believe in most, just to gain a few bills.
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New technology is constantly being released and of course everyone is all over it. These things are definitely not cheap, but people feel the need to be in possession of them in order to be accepted. "As often as not, it isn't the money itself that means anything; it is the use of money as the currency of the soul." This sentence is very real. It isn't the actual dollar bill that is important. What's important is what you can actually do with the money. If one won the lottery, one wouldn't say "oh, I got a lot of bills, I'm going to keep them forever and not spend them." No. One will most likely say, "I'm going to buy a new mansion and 3 cars, and part of the city." So in reality it isn't the money that people want, it is in fact what the money can do that appeals to

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