Wall Street: Modern-Day Economic Parallels
Wall Street is a movie that exemplifies the greed and corruption of the 1980s as well as the struggle of the little guy to live the American dream. But, unfortunately, the movie appears to be timeless even though it was inspired by the wave of takeovers that occurred in the decade it was made. In fact, the movie provides many modern-day economic parallels, ranging from an economic system damaged by greed and lack of ethics to debt-strapped consumers who want the same things as the one percent of the people who control all the wealth, but are discovering that this isn t possible. The only difference is that the movie had a moderately happy ending as the film s hero woke up and began to behave more responsibly. However, it may be way too late for this kind of happy ending for today s economy. It s most appropriate to begin the discussion of the movie with an infamous statement made by the film s antagonist, corporate raider Gordon Gekko who said, The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has mar
As easy access to lending drove house prices up, many Americans thought that prices would continue to rise and invested in houses they simply couldn t afford because they were greedy as well. But, the seeds were brewing more than 20 years ago when Wall Street was made. It s almost ironic that the government is encouraging more of the very same thing that caused the problem in the first place. Now, let s look at the situation from the point of view of the movie s protagonist, Bud Fox. This line of reasoning concluded that persons pursuing their own interests would promote efficiencies and allocate resources where they would most benefit the greater society. This Greed is Good speech embodies arguments in support of the free market economy. Bud exemplifies the mentality of most Americans, at least the ones who buy houses they can t afford and who rack up credit card debt they ll never be able to pay off. This seems to mirror corporate America s view of the importance of American jobs as they outsource them to lower-wage countries. As of December 28, 2008, the total U. Yet, today, we know that our entire financial foundation has been severely damaged by unregulated greedy institutions and uneducated and greedy consumers. He explains why management is more motivated by personal gain than the welfare of the company, Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. Gekko seems to use lack of accountability to excuse his own lack of ethics, most notably profiting from rampant insider trading. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation.
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