"Greed is Good"

(2009年9月4日)

在CMU的時候我曾經想過一個問題：為什麼對金錢和物質的貪婪飽受批判，而對知識的貪婪卻備受頌揚，或者至少，不常受到道德譴責。

人類自文明開化以來積累的智慧反覆告誡人們，貪婪的人會受懲罰。1987年電影《華爾街》至少在一定程度上也是要講述這個道理，雖然它的結局是開放式的。影片給我印象最深的是Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas飾)那篇臭名昭著的演講"Greed is good"（這樣簡單的句式讓人立刻聯想起中共中央編譯局副局長俞可平的2006年12月28日的文章《民主是個好東西》）。在提出這個振聾發聵的判斷後，Gekko用了一系列排比句來渲染鋪陳，其中一句說：

Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.

道格拉斯籍這段表演抱回了當年的奧斯卡小金人。

維基在介紹此片時這樣說：The film has come to be seen as the archetypal portrayal of 1980s excess, with Douglas's character advocating that "greed, for lack of a better word, is good".

同樣的話，在2008年的股東大會上說出來，得到的還會不會是掌聲雷動？



Gordon Gekko: [at the Teldar Paper stockholder's meeting] Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and gentlemen we're not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company! All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than one percent. You own the company. That's right, you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You're out of line Gekko!

Gordon Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. (Laughter.) One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.