The economy of the United States during the 1980’s was that of an inflated, credit-card dependant one. No one really noticed the bottom line or applied common economics to their overly lavish lifestyles. The movie Wall Street accurately portrayed the economic culture of this time period as one of excess, corruption, and unrelenting greed.
Charlie Sheen’s character, Bud Fox, is the epitome of an ambitious Wall Street broker who wants to score the big one. His opportunity arises when he meets a famous headhunter/corporate shark by the name of Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas. From here Fox enters into a world of un-imaginable power, greed, corruption, and self-indulgence. This was basically the same mindset of the people during the 80’s whereas that decade could be labeled as the “me” decade. People were interested in furthering only themselves and spending endless amounts of money on themselves.
America as a whole was invited into the era of buy now, pay later, through way of the credit card. A lot of people did not look far into the future and the repercussions that would occur as a result of their careless spending or actions. This is evident in the film also. Bud Fox wanted everything to be bigger and better and he would stop at nothing to get it. After getting over his initial hesitation of breaking the law and entering into the grey area of financial brokering, Fox surrounds himself with the fruits of his lucrative yet illegal work.
The historical name given to the stockbrokers of this time was “yuppies”. This stood for “young, urban, professionals” and this was exactly what Bud Fox was. Gordon Gekko played the part of a more experienced wise man who took Fox under his wing and showed him everything he could have if he did what Gekko wanted. Greed unfortunately was the driving factor for Fox to work for Gekko, and it was this that led to Fox’s downfall and ultimate arrest. Gordon Gekko in his famous line told everyone that “Greed is good, greed is right, greed works”; this was essentially the overall feeling of the 80’s.
Corruption in many companies during the 80’s was evident when many of them were finally taken down for their less-than-honorable ways and practices. This was the world in which Gekko and Fox worked in and through corporate/hostile take overs, they were both able to build up their fortunes and empires. This was exactly what was going on during the 80’s in this country with many big corporations trying to take over ownership of smaller businesses in order to eliminate any competition in the market place. Many people lost their jobs due to greedy C.E.O.s and board members wanting to get a piece of the usually generous buy out options. In the movie, Gordon Gekko lives off of getting rid of other companies and controlling everything he views as either a money-making opportunity or a threat in the business world.
Bud Fox entered into a new society where all of his dreams could come true with the right amount of money. Through back-handed techniques and shady dealings, Bud Fox, along with the other characters of Wall Street portrayed the culture of the 80’s correctly as being a flamboyant one where the only important things were the almighty dollar and the ways of attaining it, regardless of ethics.
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