How is Gap between the Wealthy and Poor Formed?

How is Gap between the Wealthy and Poor Formed?

How is the gap between the wealthy and the poor created, enlarged, and solidified? This question has become common in facing various issues in the modern society. Regardless of nations or countries, people on the earth have been creating wealth and all kinds of materials since hundreds of years ago. However, the accumulation of the wealth has always come to the ownership of a minority group of people and today there are still people who can not even have enough food to eat or clothes to wear. The movie Wall Street gives us a vivid presentation of the truth of greedy capitalistic America in the 1980s.

The three main characters in the film are Bud Fox, a young man who works really hard and wishes to earn a lot of money; his father, who does not measure success by the amount of money, and has a strong moral foundation; and Gordon Gekko, a ruthless, greedy, and legendary Wall Street player who seems to have hands on many aspects of big businesses. During the first half part of the movie, Bud Fox is proud of what he is doing for Gordon Gekko and enjoys the work and life as a stock broker who always senses some special news and helps Gordon to earn an enormous amount of money by using the information to manipulate the stock price. He may not realize the morality and love for his father in his deep heart until the case of Bluestar Airlines, in which his father has worked for more than twenty years, has become the target of Gordon. The second half of the movie tells how Bud Fox uses his ingenious ways to take the chances of Gordon’s trust in getting another big millionaire to buy the stocks of Bluestar Airlines and avoid the liquidation of the company.

Nevertheless, finally, he was arrested due to his crimes in manipulating the stock price. The character of Gordon Gekko is played very successfully. His famous remark of greed is impressive, and its recognition may reflect the social atmosphere of Wall Street at the time: “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.”

 For me, the movie seems to give the answer to the reason why the gap between the wealthy and poor is created, enlarged and solidified. The manipulation of the stock price can help the capital owner to gain more money, but the money is not created; it is only transferred from others. Like the remark of Gordon in the movie, “I created nothing. I own things”, such people only seize chances to seek private gain, but not for the good for the common of all. Behind their greedy mind is a ruthless heart. What will happen to the poor people is not their business. Where could the workers go for a living after the company is sold he does not care. He doesn’t care for others. He enjoys a wealthy life, but he does not undertake the social relevant responsibilities. If every rich person thinks in this way, the nation, the country, and the earth would ultimate be destroyed, because we are connected. Human beings are connected with each other, just like we are connected with other living things on the earth. The way for sustainable development is a mutual win for every party, not being a selfish, greedy lier to others.