Kathleen E. Williams
GE 301
December 11th, 2001.
Egoism in Wall Street
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
Greed is right. Greed works.”, Gordon Gekko. The movie Wall Street
demonstrates the principle of selfish egoism is one of its purest forms. Egoism
looks at the self and promotes his or her own good. Actions are considered
right if they bring more benefits than harm to the self. It’s all about money and
riches in Wall Street that promote benefiting Bud Fox’s wealth and that of his
client Mr. Gekko.
Consider Mr. Gekko, the man who makes his money from buying and
then selling wealth. He makes $800,000 a day, and wants to increase his wealth
as much as possible. Now, the egoistical person would strive to increase his
wealth without boundary, but others might take some of that profit (perhaps
the utilitarian) and be PRODUCTIVE with it. Mr. Gekko’s clearly explains his
own intentions from this quote: “I create nothing. I own.” Instead of being
productive and creating something out of his money, Mr. Gekko only strides to
widen his fiscal situation. Enough is not enough for the person with a psyche
of egoism.
Now consider Bud Fox, the ambitious stock broker. He also too has
egoism in his psyche, but undeveloped at the beginning of the movie. He starts
off as a modest guy trying to pay his college debts and make enough for living
expenses, while sometimes borrowing money from his coworkers. He jumps at
the opportunity to better his situation and admired such a man like Mr. Gekko
for all his hard earned wealth. So he breaks a few laws like giving out inside
information from his own father about the outcome of the airline he works for.
He sells that information with a few Cuban cigars to gain Mr. Gekko’s
attention and favor which lands him doing more illegal things like spying on
people to gain future financial moves. Now consider the scene when Bud Fox
arranges a secret meeting with union leaders and Mr. Gekko to plot the future
of the company. He has no actual guarantee except promises from Mr. Gekko
that he would turn the airline company back to profitability. So Bud Fox, uses
his influence as the son of union leader to convince the union board to take
action for his own interests not those of the employees of the airline.