A few weeks ago I finally got to watch a movie that I’ve been wanting to see for quite some time now. The movie was Wall Street, which is a story of a beginning stock broker by the name of Bud Fox, whom is played by Charlie Sheen, who is trying to be successful in his profession. He tries to befriend a wealthy Wall Street player by the name of Gordon Gecko, who is played by Michael Douglas, to give him advice on how to be successful in the stock market. Bud Fox would constantly call Gecko’s office everyday to give him leads on new stocks, and would visit the office bringing gifts to see if Gecko would actually see him. Then, one day while visiting his office, Fox finally got his wish and was able to talk to Gecko for a few minutes. Gecko talked to him a little bit of his philosophy and asked if Fox had any information on stocks to invest in. Out of nowhere, Fox talks about the airline his father worked at, saying it was a great company and was about to expand itself to other cities, which in reality it was in trouble and under investigation by the government. As I said, the meeting only lasted a few minutes and Fox left as though he blew his chance on hitting big as a stock broker. However, the next day Fox got a call from Gecko. Gecko told him he would like to buy 20,000 shares of his father’s airline company. The failure that Fox thought turned into success in that couple second phone call. It was the open door Fox was looking for, and after that day at work, Gecko began to shower Fox with gifts, women, and advice on how to make it big. Then, in the next few months, Fox’s life as a struggling stockbroker was turned into close to being a millionaire. Then one day, Gecko decides to buy out the majority of Fox’s fathers companies shares and start selling off all it’s assets to investors. At first, Fox thought this move would help make the main shareholders of that company more wealthy and everyone would be happy, but what it would really do is make the company go out of business and all the employees out of a job. After Fox found out about it, he began to take matters into his own hands to help save his father’s company from going out of business. He began to get people he knew to start buying that stock so the price would get so low, Gecko would have to sell off his share. The plan worked, and his father’s company was saved. However, Fox, on the next day after beating Gecko in his own game, he arrested for insider trading at his work, and as a result, a loss of his license to sell stocks. The movie would end grimly with his father, although telling him what a good job he did saving a thousand workers from being unemployed, driving him to the courthouse for Fox’s hearing. After seeing this movie, I began to think to myself on what is right, and what is wrong. Of course, if Fox went along with Gecko’s plan to sell off pieces of his father’s company, he would have more money than he could count. Now, being his father wouldn’t have a job anymore, but there would be so much money from the sales to where Fox’s father wouldn’t have to work a day in his life again. Also, Fox would not have been in trouble with the law either. However, he ended up doing the right thing and saved thousands of employees from being without a job and going to prison for it. It’s amazing how someone tries to do the right thing, but yet gets punished for doing it. So really it makes you think what is right, and what is wrong. I can see how both scenarios are, their pros and cons on both ends. However, in the end, I would probably end up going toward Gecko’s plan and sell off pieces of my father’s company. Now, I know how my father would be, he would love it because he could finally retire. Also, in this day in age on how the corporate world is, I’d rather try to make all the money I can and retire than to try to climb the ladder and in the long run, end up getting laid off three, four, or even five times and still not have a pension or a strong 401k plan. Even though it would cost thousands of employees their jobs, those same employees would not support me or my family if I was hard on my luck, and some of them would do the same exact thing as I would be doing if were in the same position. But it’s still a tough call, but already having to deal with lay offs and bad management, I would be looking for a way to get to early retirement from being an employee and a beginning to being an owner of my own company.
