Greed. It’s STILL good!
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you probably know that one of my all time favorite movies – Wall Street – has gone down in history as a favorite among investors of all kinds.
At a meeting of stockholders, my man Gordon Gekko opined:
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 marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
And, no my friend, that was NOT yesterday, or last week, or even last year. That was nearly 25 years ago.
Interestingly enough, over 30 years ago another fave (only real-life), Milton Friedman, expressed an almost identical opinion when interviewed by Phil Donahue. Listen in:
Almost sounds like Donahue is talking about our current economic woes, doesn’t it? What’s that old saying, the more things change, the more they stay the same?
So let me ask ya – are corporations and greed the problem? Do we owe our economic malaise and great wealth disparities to this “corporate greed” factor?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave them in the Comments section below…. and
Thanks for reading BillOnBusiness.net!!
Great post! Have you read ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand? Amazing.
My thoughts are that greed is good as it promotes and requires self responsibility. If we all just worked hard at not relying on anyone else, we’d be a lot better off. Obviously, things are not always so black and white, but I believe that they are more dark grey and off white than somewhere in the middle.