If America wants to retain its position in the world, it needs to get its mojo back. We're not quite certain when we lost it, but we suspect it happened sometime after the fictional character Gordon Gekko proclaimed, “Greed is good,” in the 1987 film Wall Street. Michael Douglas, who starred in the role, may have intended to portray the dangers of unrestrained greed, but his speech became instead a rallying cry for a generation of Wall Street manipulators (if not outright fraudsters) who caused numerous financial disasters including Enron, the subprime mortgage affair, and the 2008 recession.
The past 10 years should have taught America an important lesson: greed is not always good.
Of course, we are all in favor of individuals making an honest profit. But unrestrained greed does not correlate with growth. And if a handful of insiders pursue profit so aggressively that they derail the nation's economy, standards of living, availability of good jobs for those who want them, the ability to look after our interests on the world stage, etc.
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