Ethical Dilemmas In The Movie Wall Street Philosophy Essay

Ethical Dilemmas In The Movie fence Street Philosophy Es prescribeWALL STREET is an Ameri brush off picture show directed by Oliver St nonpareil. It Street takes us to the front lines of an industry that has of late on a lower floorgone a decline in values and ethics that once were the creation of Ameri lot trade. The mental picture deals with mein truth ethical issues. The movie portrays dickens guinea pigs in realmicular one is Gordon Gekko, a wealthy unscrupulous corporate player, play by Michael Douglas and develop flurry, a young and dynamic occupation federal agent, play by Charlie Sheen. The main focus of the economic aspects of the movie is how rapacity contri besideses to our society.The movie begins with bud drop, who spends his work season calling flock to parcel let out them sh atomic number 18s and to tolerate them investment plans. He is quite desperate to get to top. He aims to dish out sh argons to Gekko, perplex him his client. bud is a young s temmabroker who comes from a working-class family and Gekko is a millionaire who Bud admires and compulsions to be associated with. Buds begetter is a blue-collared airline maintenance foreman. He works for Blue-star Airline, which has a prominent role in the movie. Bud is so desperate to bear Gekko his client and so reaches his gainice one former(a)(a) morning to wish him on his Birthday and pitches him some melodic phrases which he had been analyzing oer some time. However Gekko hold backms unimpressed. Realizing that Gekko might non do ancestry with him, he passes on inside(a)r information regarding the Blue-star Airlines where his father works. The information is that the Airline was involved in some crash case and that the airline volition be vindicated in that crash case and therefrom will come over the suspension and will look at expanding services. Thus, after this information manifestation Gekko becomes Buds client. One of the issues covered in this movie is of Insider Information. This will be discussed in detail later in the text.An appreciative Gekko takes Bud under his wing, provided compels him to unearth new information by whatever means necessary, including worthy a partner in a cleaning comp each to induce access to confidential files in the offices of the clients of the cleaning comp both. Thus in an stew to become wealthy Bud resorts to wrong means. Bud becomes wealthy, enjoying Gekkos promised perks, including a box seat office with a view, a penthouse onManhattans Upper East Side. Gekko asks Bud to get large quantities of stock in a paper company, Teldar, a failing company which Gekko wants to takeover and turn around. Bud does this by enlist his friends asstraw misdirectersof the stock and giving them a cut of the production (Here as well he uses his friends as a means to take hold his wrong doings by leaveing them a share of his salary. In a direction it accounts for bribery, another ethical issue). It is at the Teldar annual stockholders conflict where Gekko retorts his infamous voraciousness is good speech. There is a famous cite which Douglas evidences as followsGreed for lack of a better word is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts done, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms rapacity for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward s inhale of mankind. And greed you mark my manner of speaking will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other break d give birth corporation called the USA.In the road to perdition, Bud does several serves which are against his principles but be quiet to achieve confidence of his boss, he does them. These tasks include following Lawrence Wildman, business rival of Gekko to trace his movement and analyze his possible natural processs. In this delegacy again Gekko ends up making millions of Dollars.Bud in the mean time gains complete confidence of his boss. He su ggest and idea to Gekko. The plan was to buy Blue-star airlines and expand it using the savings achieved by union concession. Bud approaches his father to get union support for this turnaround of the company. The situation takes a outstanding turn when Bud learns that Gekko plans to present do off Bluestars assets and in the process, thus guide Carl and the undefiled Bluestar staff unemployed, however making Bud extremely easy as the president of Bluestar. Angered by Gekkos decision, and burdened with the guilt of organism a scapegoat to Bluestars destruction, Bud chooses his father as his mentor and resolves to pass over Gekkos plans. He creates a plan to keep Bluestar airlines out of the reach of Gekko. He decides to keep the stock values move down so that Gekko decide to sell of his stock, and at that lower charge he convinces Gekkos rival Mr. Wilderman to buyback the stocks, who thusly becomes the airlines majority stock owner. Gekko, when realizes that his stock has p lummeted, finally decides to dump his continued affair in the company. Thus, Bud again use wrong means of manipulating stock hurts, but this time for the good of his multitude.Gekko, eventually comes to know that Bud had engineered the entire scheme. So, the following day, when Bud jubilantly goes back to work, everyone was curiously in a grave mood. He is confronted by the police and theSecurities and Ex tilt Commission (SEC), who had became indeterminate of Bud when they detected that he placed an un commonly large buy parade of Teldar stock, which was monitored and thus picked up by StockWatch. Bud is placed under arrest, upsetcuffed, and interpreted out of the office in tears. In the end Bud meets Gekko in central park where Bud is viciously attacked by Gekko. Gekko in innocence while assaulting him mentions of his involvement in the illegal business transactions. Bud actually records all his acceptances in a recorder, which he later hold over to the police.CHARACTERS CE NTRAL TO THE MOVIEBud FoxBud Fox as a somebody is very ambitious stock broker who makes $50,000 a year in salary. His father is Carl, who is a worker at BlueStar Airlines. Bud was offered a job at Bluestar Airlines, however he declined the offer because he wanted to pursue his dream. He believes he must make himself a major player in the market at any cost and later in the shoot down he proves this to us. His goal is to grasp the elephant which means doing business with one of the bigger investors in the financial markets of argue Street. He is an ambitious person and the way he purchased expensive gifts equivalent cigars in order to get opportunities shows his go-getter attitude in life.Gordon GekkoGecko is an arb in the business world. An arbitrager is one who searches for information about firms that are wreck able. Once a electric potential firm is found and taken over the arbitrager can thus make lucrative wage through liquidation of the taken over companies assets. One might say that Gecko is driven by greed because he doesnt care about those people in the company or their future only his bank account. He has all the wealth in the world, but soundless he lusts for more(prenominal) and more of it. He value information the intimately, information obtained by any means. In the pursuit of his goals he looks for poor but smart people who could go that extra mile to get him information. He understood that his greed cannot stand all by itself, thus he strategized to spread his greed over to his workers. By making Bud greedy for more money, a better life-style, status etc. he made Bud do all the tasks which he otherwise would not be ready to do. He convinced the young stock broker that GREED IS GOOD. The eastern doctrine that greed is the starting point of self-destruction becomes true in Gordons case.Carl (Buds Father)The character is played by Martin Sheen. He plays an important character in the movie. He is the person who changes Bud at the right m oment. He makes him realise that the scoop up thing in the world is to create value, not to buy and sell dreams for others. It is because of Carl that Bud undergoes a change of mind and decides to act in a way that is for the larger good of the society rather than his personal good. alike Carl has very high moral values as was justified by his actions of not letting himself be involved in selling off the company to Gekko and his support or the unions.Effect of movies on SocietyMovies in particular and Mass media in general has a affectionate cushion on the society. The roles that are visualized in movies leave a keen-sighted term mark on its audience. Movies form an ideal mode of communicating ones ideas to a large conclave of people. Thus, one should be very informed while trying to address an issue to the audience. The way the hero portrays himself in the film will be emulated by the fans and this might end up having serious consequences. In theattitudeof the hero througho ut the film,he will not show any respect to any individual. As these film stars dumbfound got a huge number of fan followers,the attitude portrayed by the hero in the film will be severely followed by the fan followers also in their real-life situations. It is not only the un ameliorate youth who follow stars blind folded but also the educated people who know in the mind that all this does not make any sense, but accept it by heart.Ethics in moviesThus, as we shake up seen that movies have a major impact on the society, this radical should be used to spread ethical behavior, virtues in the society. There have been galore(postnominal) tries in this direction, which include movies like No Country for rare men, Blood Diamond, fence Street. These kinds of movies move the audience and make them think as what is right and what is wrong. Thus, we should try preaching these concepts of ethics through motion pictures.ISSUESThe issues that we plan could be discussed with ethical angle wereInsider information transplantManipulation of stocks from each one of the above issues will be discussed in detail. These issues are so applicable in the current market conditions. But still in order to tackle these issues, stringent laws have been made by the government. But still such cases do happen, examples could be taken of Billionaire galleon group founder Raj Rajarathnam, indigotin Kumar, Board member on ISB.INSIDER INFORMATIONInsider concernis the trading of acorporationsstockor othersecurities(e.g.bondsorstock options) by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company. In some of the countries the law says that members inside the organization can trade, if this trading is done in a way that does not take into account the non-public information. n the join States and several other jurisdictions, trading conducted by corporate incumbents, key employees, directors, or significant shareholders (in the U.S., specify as beneficial owner s of ten percent or more of the firms justness securities) must be reported to the regulator or publicly disclosed, commonly within a few business days of the trade. But still insider trading is supposed to be increasing the cost of capital for issuers, thus hampering the economic growth.There are two types of insider trading based on the laws in the country, healthy insider trading and illegal insider trading.Legal Insider tradingLegal trades by insiders are common, as employees of publicly-tradedcorporationsoften have stock or stock options. These trades are made public in the US throughSEC filings, mainlyForm 4. Prior to 2001, US law restricted trading such that insiders mainly traded during windows when their inside information was public, such as soon after earnings releases. Section in law gauzy that the U.S. prohibition against insider trading does not require proof that an insider actually used bodily nonpublic informationwhen conducting a trade possession of such infor mation alone is sufficient to violate the provision. For example, if a corporate insider plans on retiring after a period of time and, as part of his or her retirement planning, adopts a written, binding plan to sell a specific amount of the companys stock every month for the next two years, and during this period the insider comes into possession of material nonpublic information about the company, any subsequent trades based on the original plan might not constitute prohibited insider trading.Illegal insider tradingRules against insider trading onmaterial non-public informationexist in most jurisdictions around the world, though the enlarge and the efforts to enforce them vary considerably. The United States is generally viewed as having the strictest laws against illegal insider trading, and makes the most serious efforts to enforce them.A trading done by a 3rd party on the information given by the person related to the company would account for Insider trading.A new implication for the Insider trading law has been formed, it is misappropriation guess. It says thatanyone who misappropriates (steals) information from their employer and trades on that information inanystock (not just the employers stock) is guilty of insider trading.AMERICAN INSIDER TRADING LAWUnited States has compiled many laws to curb insider trading. US has been on the fore-front to make laws directed at curbing insider trading.These are-Common lawSEC regulationsAlthough there have been many counter arguments for legalizing Insider trading in US. There are many Economists and legal scholars who argue that laws making insider trading illegal should be revoked. They say that by having non-public insider information the investors are benefitted, by more quickly introducing information in the market. Others argue that Insider trading is a legal pact amongst the seller and buyer, wherein seller owns the property (legally).BRIBEIt is an act wherein an individual in order to be benefitted by any other individual or to get any favor done gifts something to that individual. Bribery, a form of financial corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery accounts for crime, no matter in what circumstance it is given. Corruption and bribery goes hand in hand, corruption has social and economic consequences on people and business around the globe. Corruption has been considered evil by people everywhere in the world. Most are given to public officials to make them change the rules or break the laws that were made for the common good. We can take examples from our daily lives, when we are caught without license, the first thing we do is pay bribe to the police officer so that he whitethorn let us go. Bribe may be given in two cases, one is given when we want the authority to change the rules all together and the other is when we want to belt along the process. In the movie as well we see the Bud Fox in order to park money of Gekko into the accounts of his friends offers them incentives. In the book, the economist a mention of a very important point is made, that people act as per incentives. Thus, in order to meet his ends Fox induces his friends to be retainer in the process.MANIPULATION OF STOCKSMarket manipulationdescribes a deliberate elbow grease to interfere with the free and fair operation of the market and create artificial, out of true or misleading appearances with respect to the price of, or market for, asecurity. Market manipulation is prohibited in the United Statesand other countries by acts in the various(prenominal) companies.The Act defines market manipulation as transactions which create an artificial price or maintain an artificial price for a tradable security.This manipulation can occur in several shipway-Pools This includes an obligation wherein a group of traders delegate authority to a exclusive manager to trade for a specific period of time and then share the profits or loss.Churning When a trader places both buy and sell orders at about the same price. The profit in activity is intended to attract additional investors, and increase the price.Runs When a group of traders create activity or rumors in order to drive the price of a security up. An example is theGuinness share-trading fraudof the 1980s. In the US, this activity is usually referred to aspainting the tape.Ramping Actions designed to artificially raise the market price of listed securities and to give the impression of voluminous trading, in order to make a quick profit.Bear Raid Attempting to push the price of a stock down by heavy selling or short selling.In the movie we see that, Fox in order to take visit on Gekko, asks his fellow traders to start selling the stock so that the stock prices plummets the stocks of Blue star Airlines, so that Gekko gets rid of the stock without getting practically hurt. In the same way we have seen that in order to increase the stock price earlier in the movie, he asks his friends to advise their respective clients to purchase stock of interest.Ethical TheoriesIn the movie the ethical dilemmas that we see primarily is the difference in the ethical valuation that Bud, Gekko and Carl do. Some of the theories highlighted areGekko is a person having psychological egoism. He believes that all actions are prompted by selfish desires. It maintains that self-oriented interests ultimately motivate all human actions.Another theory that comes across is the deontological theory, which states that we all have certain clear obligations we have as human beings such as to care for our children, and to not commit murder. In the movie Carl shows moral values where he chooses his union and co-workers at Bluestar airlines over sharing profit made by his son.Consequentialist theory is also one of the principles that we see in the movie being highlighted. This theory states that An action is virtuously right if the consequences of that action are mo re favorable than unfavorable. When Gordon Gekko thinks his thinking can be termed as unethical based on this theory. This is because the bad consequences of his action like the Bluestar employees losing their jobs and the Shareholders losing their money far outweighs the good consequences of Gekko getting huge returns on his investment.Social Contract Theory In the movie Wall Street, Gekko can justify his actions according to the above theory. This theory propounds the view that persons moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement between them to form society. In the place Wall Street, there exists a dog-eat-dog world. Therefore in order to survive one has to adhere to Wall Street norms. Bud as a newcomer has to adjust in order to stay and flourish there and not try to change it.CONCLUSIONThe movie Wall Street portrays a very strong social context emerging on the Wall Street, where competition and the urge to make more money have left no direction for ethical decision making. This movie sensitizes us with a dilemma which a young dreamer faces when he faces the practicality of the real world. In order to make big bucks he has to make a decision against his moral principles. He does take it, however sooner realizes that this chase for money is a neer ending chase and will make a monster out of him. He therefore retraces his steps back. Although it came at a cost of him getting arrested, he had no qualms regarding his decision. Concluding about the actions taken by the characters in the movie can be controversial, as suggested because both sides can give their points based on different theories and explanation however as a group we strongly feel that Bud did make a very ethical decision.Everyone does mistakes. As a newcomer, it was natural of him to get impressed by the bigwigs of the industry. However what distinguished him was the force and strength of his character, by which he listened to his own true inner voice. In the l ast scene when Bud hold encounters Gekko he very truly and aptly says to Gekko that I guess I realized, Im just Bud Fox. As much I wanted to be Gordon Gekko, Ill always be Bud Fox.