The 1980’s was the decade that spawned the ‘me’ generation, Ronald Reagan’s Reaganomics, Mrs. Pacman, and perhaps most importantly, the American corporate juggernaut, ie large corporations. These corporations helped shape and define the 80s into what we remember them as. No, they didn’t give use Fraggle Rock, or Punky Brewster, but they set the mentality of the 80’s. The 80’s was a time of greed, self interest, material girls, the cold war, and a populous striving to move up in their jobs and lives, at any cost.
The world of the 80’s was a place far different than the preceding decades, businessmen lived lifestyles that rivaled, and sometimes even surpassed that of rock stars, and they were able to achieve this by one following one mantra: Money, anything for money, meaning they achieved it through greed. The best example of this was the NYSE, New York Stock Exchange. It was the central core of commerce, and every businessman’s best friend and worst enemy. The movie Wall Street depicts the theme of greed, and the corporate lifestyle and mentality of the 80’s.
One scene in particular sums up the theme, the message of the movie, and the essence of the 80’s in general. It is the party scene, and Laurence Wilder, and Gordon Gecko are talking about a company called Annicot Steel. Wilder wants to buy the company, and Gekko knows this. Gekko in turn, bought up as much stock as he could, and drove up the price to ridiculous amounts. Wilder tells him that he’ll simply not pay the price that Gekko has driven it up to, and Gekko says that he’ll sit on it. As a businessman, Gekko knows the repercussions of his actions. Holding a company in instability like this leaves the employees in perpetual chaos. Large corporations support any number of people, and in turn any number of families. Not only that, but it affects the clients that the company provides steel services to, and hurts them because they may now have to go with a more expensive company, and to make up costs they may also downsize. In short, keeping a large company like this in turmoil causes a chain reaction of events that are bad for everyone else except for Gekko. He knows this and still wants to go through with his plan, to drive up the price just for his own benefit. He does anything and everything for money, and has no regard for what the consequences of his actions are on others. The biggest reason for greed was the state of the economy in the 1980’s. Increased defense spending, cuts on social programs, and Reagan and his Reaganomics in general tended to support big business. Once the large businesses got a taste, they wanted more and more. While the lower and middle class taxpayers were hurting, guys like Gordon Gekko might put them out of a job the way he can, just to make even more money, to cap off the mountain of it he’s got in the bank. Its totally unnecessary for him, he’s just plain greedy.
That was the 80’s, a world of corporate deceit. It was where the big businessman was born and where greed ruled over all people with an iron fist; no one could escape greed. It spawned the stereotype of the ‘average worker’ as we’ve come to know him, a man in the middle class who worked in his cubical at the office of his big company from 9am to 5 pm everyday, 5 or six days a week. It has left us with large corporations that still exist today, and to this day still have a bit of that 80’s greed left in them, like Enron. In a time of turmoil, Reaganomics and a struggling economy, greed prevailed.
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