The Greed In The Wolf Of Wall Street

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When Americans think of Wall Street and stockbrokers they most often think of greed. Wall Street is the biggest trading exchange for stockbrokers in the world. In addition, Wall Street serves as a metonym for the overall financial sector in the United States. With movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, consumerism by the members of Wall Street is viewed as either lavish or excess. The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort. Belfort started his career on Wall Street as a stockbroker and later opened his own firm; in which the firm used a pump and dump scam to amass a fortune. Through Belfort’s progression of wealth, excess is prevalent and it leads to his self-destruction. The overall message from the film was the greed of Wall Street and its byproducts of drug abuse, sexual indulgence, and corruption that led to Belfort’s demise and prosecution. The greed and corruption of Wall Street made headlines in 2011 (Milke). Mark Milke, a senior research for the Fraser Institute, wrote about Occupy Wall…show more content…
Buffet has given twenty billion dollars away to charity in his lifetime (Forbes). Buffet cannot give away his money fast enough as his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, is the fifth most valuable public company in America. However, greed is still very prevalent on Wall Street. In the New York Times, former stock broker, Sam Polk, wrote an opinion edited titled, “For the love of Money.” Polk has since quit working as a stockbroker and focuses on his philanthropy projects. Polk writes, “I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.” Polk mentions that bonuses are where fortunes are made and he states “In my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million — and I was angry because it wasn’t big enough.” Much like the path of Jordan Belfort, Polk used cocaine and was a daily drinker. Polk’s addiction to making money made him hit rock
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