Greed, Ethics, and American Business Culture on Screen

Introduction: Greed on Screen and in Reality

Perhaps the quintessential film about American business culture is Oliver Stone's 1987 drama Wall Street. The film's infamous Gordon Gekko, as portrayed by Michael Douglas, is shown as a hollow charlatan whose ethos that "greed is good" highlights the corruption of American business culture. The protagonist, played by Charlie Sheen, is a callow and easily corrupted young man, eager to make money and easily swayed by the promises of American capitalism. However, breaches of American business ethics are quite often not nearly so obvious as the film suggests.

Although the film may feel like an accurate portrayal of American business culture's disregard for ethics, in reality a lack of ethical norms is rarely so raw or so obvious on Wall Street. Business people's reasons for starting a company are often far more complex than Gekko's. For a business to succeed, even in the cut-throat world of high finance, corporate leaders may have to be "greedy, but we want them to be greedy on behalf of the shareholders, not on behalf of their own yachts and Gulfstream jets," said Nell Minow, editor of The Corporate Library, a website focused on corporate governance and responsibility to investors, as well as the general public's conception of corporate ethics (Harrigan, 2004). A businessperson as transparent as Gekko would have little success raising capital today.

Gordon Gekko and the Ethics of Wall Street

Not all of the most public scandals involve the narrow and greedy pursuit of money for its own sake. Even those individual deposed CEOs — like Martha Stewart, who may seem like power-hungry characters made for Shakespearean tragedies in the mold of Lady Macbeth, or at the very least TV movies of the week — had to have a vision to begin their companies. Stewart developed a company and a brand name that stretched beyond mere money-making. Born into a relatively modest family, she worked her way through college. Her homemaking business bridged her personal interests and her desire for advancement.

Martha Stewart: Ambition Beyond Money

Her passion for hands-on work and gracious living was sparked by enthusiasm for the cultured, mannered life she married into. Only an outsider, one might say, could — in a uniquely American fashion — try to teach Middle America how to cultivate roses, bake apple pies, and keep house like the Connecticut gentry wives who had all the time in the world while their husbands toiled on Wall Street.

Ironically, Martha Stewart had worked as a stockbroker before she herself became a stock, that of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. A federal jury later convicted company founder Martha Stewart of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements related to a personal sale of ImClone Systems stock. Her illegal dealings did not gain her a significant sum of money. They were performed almost as an afterthought, without care. The amount she would have lost had she kept the stock was quite insignificant compared to the rest of her holdings in her own company. Her crime was one of arrogance rather than greed. Because she had been able to brand herself and succeed within the framework of American capitalism, she apparently felt invincible.

Conclusion: The Complex Inner Life of American Business

Stewart was already fabulously wealthy. People still buy her products, even though she is a convicted felon. Celebrity, arrogance, and the hunger for intangible status — not simple greed — ultimately define her story, and in many ways define the deeper currents of American capitalism itself. Both the fictional world of Wall Street and the real-world drama of the Martha Stewart scandal remind us that the motivations driving American business culture are rarely reducible to a single, easily condemned vice.