George Packer's articles of "Mr. Sam: Sam Walton" and "Just Business: Jay-Z" provides strikingly similar stereotypical stories of 'rags to riches'. Both Jay-Z and Sam Walton had unparalleled motivation to money, perhaps it is not an exaggeration to say it was an obsession. They both valued monetary success higher than anything, at the cost of morals and sometimes happiness. George Packer rightfully portrays the lives of both icons in a negative manner; Jay-Z as a paranoid mobster contributing to pretentious and violent values, while Sam Walton created a culture of cheapness and low quality.
Jay-Z and George Packer's difference is in that Jay-Z was making money to survive, whereas Packer was a miserly man from the start. The background of the two is drastically different; George Packer was a man with education from mainstream society (high school, college, retail) and Jay-Z was a man who started from selling drugs and rapping. Both carry themselves dramatically differently as well, Jay-Z chooses extravagance and flamboyance while Packer displays stinginess and obscurity. In contrast to the similarity in that they both value money over everything they hold different philosophies on what money represents and have been brought up from different backgrounds.
It is my opinion that these two figures are the type of people that are destroying society. The two people are so glorified in society that people view the values of pretentiousness, stinginess, and condescension as something that's good. These values are a part of what is destroying America, and these values are making monsters from the lowest of social classes to the highest. Money holds way too much value in today's life, and there needs to be a fundamental change in that philosophy.
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