Gordon Gekko, prophet?

[marmar]

"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy?"

[MercutioATC]

1. No, realist.

Greed IS good.

...but if the goal is to promote the good of the general populace, that greed needs to be regulated.


Gekko was speaking from the position of the consummate capitalist....and, from that position, he was absolutely correct.

[bemildred]

2. Well, certainly not naive. nt

[RandomThoughts]

3. I would say to him that he can only succeed by illusion

Only people thinking he should be allowed to do what he does, allows it to happen, once the illusion is gone, and people see what he really thinks. Like was done by speaking about it in that movie, he is in big trouble.

What made Gekko funny is many people saw it as what to try to be, not realizing it was exposing what they were.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Slight correction needed ...

99% of that wealth came from someone elses hard work.

[Jakes Progress]

5. I used to teach at a school for the rich.

When this movie came out the kids thought Gecko was the hero of the film. They saw this movie as a tragedy where the evil Sheen brought down the magnificent Douglas. They weren't pretending. They really thought the film was telling us how the world ought to be, that we should all aspire to be the hero - Gordon Gecko.

[troubledamerican]

6. February 2010: Wall Street 2 starring Gordon Gekko (no joke) --

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1027718/

Oliver Stone, prophet