About Gordon Gecko
Gordon Gecko has painted the word greed in a positive light. Arguing that greed is the driving
force behind life, money, love and generally success. Without greed then the need for money
would be limited. The current cooperate laws guide against greed however a class of cooperate
executives are protected by these laws that encourage wanton misuse of company property and
wealth. The actual stockholders are left with minimal profits from their investments whereas the
cooperate board executives are pampered with expensive holidays and trips for no work at all.
Being the largest stockholder at Telder paper, Gordon argues that the management has absolutely
no stake in the management of a company. The interest of the stakeholders that he equates to
greed must be honored for the success of the company. No investor would be interested in
earning less than 1% after investing millions in a company.
Milton Friedman espouses that greed turns the wheel of economic growth and development. No
society can register any development or inventions realized without greed. Greed acts as the
motivation behind the successful invention of modern revolution in science and technology.
When the government sets the minimum wage to protect the poor the results is that fewer
employees are employed and thousands of other potential employees who would have found
work as a result of low pay are denied the opportunity to work and improve their living
conditions. For example, low minimum wage would allow McDonalds to hire more employees
and also reduce the price of its feedstuff hence creating more business and more employment.
The policies of the government to reduce greed actually harm the economy and the lives of poor
people who cannot get jobs above the minimum wage set by the government (Friedman, 2006).
The phenomenal growth in the world economy, technology and medicine can be directly equated
to the free enterprise regime.
Reference
Friedman, M. (2006). “Dr. Milton Friedman” . Opinion Journal. Retrieved November 19, 2015
