In 1980 Reagan was sworn in as president and brought a message to the United States, “It is time to reawaken the industrial giant, to get government back within its means, and to lighten our punitive tax burden,” he announced this on inauguration day. [1] The 80’s were a turning point economically in the country, but to reawaken the industrial giant there would be losses to the poor and lower middle class because of policy changes and the tax cuts. [2] As displayed in the movie Wall Street, greed can be a nasty thing and if one wants too much then they must take from someone else.
The movie Wall Street is about a life of a young investment banker during the mid 80’s named Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen). Bud is willing to do whatever it takes to become rich and successful even if it means riding on the coattails of a notorious stock market shark, Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas). Smooth talking Gekko for lack of better wording could sell a lifetime supply of candy to a diabetic. He gets Bud hook, line, and sinker doing illegal things to help him (Gekko) make money until Gekko’s geed and lust for money catches up to him and turns Bud against him.
The scene shown above is in our eyes the turning point of the corruption of Bud Fox. Gekko, as seen above, is dressed in a black suit and black tie with wet slicked back hair can be easily seen as the evil yet he uses his lies to persuade the stockholders to put faith in him while in actuality he does not care about the stockholders at all. Up until this part of the movie Bud has been seen with somewhat sub par suits and plainly combed hair. Although Bud is seen like this in this scene, it should be noted that for the rest of the movie until the very end he becomes somewhat of a Gordon Gekko protégé with fancy suits and slicked back hair. Gekko’s greed for money was passed on to Bud where the lust for more and more ultimately found its limits.
This scene alone is a perfect summary of the economic conditions during this period of time. The rich got richer and the poor sank lower and lower into poverty. By the end of Regan’s second term more jobs were created, but the jobs were used for the wealthy people rather than the poor. [3] Gekko’s theory of geed is good is somewhat true but only for those greedy enough to do what it took at all costs to make money while honest people lost money hand over fist. Greed is like a plague that swallows everyone around it. If greedy people get rich, then people see that and become greedy as well trying to be as rich as them and the cycle just repeats itself. More than likely there will never be an end to greed in the world. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi “The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”[4]
Wall Street 20th Century Fox Pictures
Video source:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechwallstreet.html
[1] Nation of Nations pg. 947
[2] Nation of Nations pg. 950
[3] Nation of Nations pg. 950
[4] http://thinkexist.com/quotation/earth_provides_enough_to_satisfy_every_man-s_need/181709.html
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