Skewed Moralities

Skewed Moralities In Mary Arguelles’ article “Money for Morality,” she presumes to state her thesis which details that in today’s society we have lost the need to be self-motivated and otherwise rely on other people to bargain with us with tokens of success thus sullying our dignified good deeds. This is expressed best in Mary Arguelles’ first example of a boy whom goes out of his way to return a large sum of cash to its rightful owner whilst not intending upon receiving a reward and yet however is pursued by another group of adults wishing to reimburse him for his troubles and finding that the reward is deserved of a large sum of money. Mary Arguelles’ goes on to explain that through actions like these, not only are our efforts being diminished but also we are being trained to expect rewards for deeds that supersede the plane of what is just. To give her argument strength she includes personal ties to her own relationship with her son and his personal account of his friends and their parents. In this story they describe the teacher’s and parent’s effort to set up a bargaining system with their youthful counterparts thus giving the students a bribe of sorts to achieve to a higher standard. To which of course Mary Arguelles states, “Doing well is its own reward. The A just confirms that.” To conclude Mary Arguelles sums up with a knowledgeable remark about being a good example; that parents, or rather just people in general, should make it their objective to provide good means of raising their kids through the power of suggestion. Rather than making their way to the couch or wasting time and money at some mall, spent that time instead to read a book, do some basic chores. At a developing age it only provides positive reinforcement to a child that will carry them through the rest of life in order to achieve.