John Stossel’s “Greed”

Overview

The Why

Reinforced Values
Be Principled
Opportunity
Sound Judgment
Win-Win

Is greed good? John Stossel dives into answering this question in this 6-part video series, connecting with individuals across the country and how self-interest impacts their lives. Students will be challenged to consider whether greed is bad or if humans acting out of self-interest is good.

Intro

• Ask students what they think the definition of greed is.
• Ask students, “Is greed good?”
  • Most will say “no.”
  • Prompt further discussion: Why do we always want more? How much is enough?
• Explain: But what is the difference between greed and self-interest and what makes one good and the other not? Today, we are going to take a deep dive into this question by watching a series of six video episodes from John Stossel.
  

Social and Emotional Skills

1. In this activity, students develop skills within the Social Awareness competency. As they view the series of video clips examining the question of “Is greed good?” students are engaging in “perspective-taking” and “empathy.” They are asked to understand how our social and ethical norms fuel this narrative behind the evils of greed and question how their own self-interest can be leveraged to benefit themselves and others.
2. Students also engage in the Responsible Decision-Making competency. As students reflect, they will further understand their “ethical responsibility” to behave in a way that is not greedy but rather motivated by self-interest. They will understand how allowing greed to drive their actions lead to less than favorable consequences in the long run.

Preparation

• Preview the video series to help you decide how you can best leverage it with your students.
• Determine how you will share the activity with your students. Options to consider:
  • You could virtually share with students the video and debrief questions and ask them to independently complete and return.
  • You could watch and discuss together as a whole group via Zoom.
  • You could introduce the lesson with the whole group, then assign students to break and watch the videos independently. Ask students to come back together to discuss after each episode (each about 6 minutes long).
• Decide if students need to engage in note-taking or a graphic organizer while watching the videos. An option to help with this might be The Codec.
• Decide how you will engage students in the debrief. This could happen through The Codec, Zoom discussion, posting via a discussion board on your classroom platform, or collaborating in a Google Doc or Padlet.
  • Protip: Consider adding to the instructions any parameters around student writing (grammar mechanics, number of sentences, etc.).
• Post the activity to your classroom platform for students to access and complete as you determined.

Directions

• Explain the activity using the method you decided during your prep.
  • Protip: Depending on which method you selected, it may be beneficial to reflect and have a mini-debrief between each video. This will help point out a shift in opinion or perspective on greed vs. self-interest through the series.
• Conduct a final debrief using the debrief questions provided.

Debrief

Students can complete the debrief individually by answering the following questions, include on a discussion board or utilize groups via Zoom to discuss their learnings.

• Is greed good or bad for society?
• How does trade make people better off?
• What does it mean to be self-interested?
• Was your perception of greed influenced by this video series? Why or why not?
• How did you see Win-Win Focus illustrated in this video series?
• How might Being Principled impact if greed is good or bad (creates value or not).
• Tell me about a time you have acted in self-interest or greed and what the outcome was in the end.