"Greed is Good"
(2009年9月4日)
在CMU的时候我曾经想过一个问题：为什么对金钱和物质的贪婪饱受批判，而对知识的贪婪却备受颂扬，或者至少，不常受到道德谴责。
人类自文明开化以来积累的智慧反复告诫人们，贪婪的人会受惩罚。1987年电影《华尔街》至少在一定程度上也是要讲述这个道理，虽然它的结局是开放式的。影片给我印象最深的是Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas饰)那篇臭名昭著的演讲"Greed is good"（这样简单的句式让人立刻联想起中共中央编译局副局长俞可平的2006年12月28日的文章《民主是个好东西》）。在提出这个振聋发聩的判断后，Gekko用了一系列排比句来渲染铺陈，其中一句说：
Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.
道格拉斯籍这段表演抱回了当年的奥斯卡小金人。
维基在介绍此片时这样说：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".
同样的话，在2008年的股东大会上说出来，得到的还会不会是掌声雷动？
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.
在CMU的时候我曾经想过一个问题：为什么对金钱和物质的贪婪饱受批判，而对知识的贪婪却备受颂扬，或者至少，不常受到道德谴责。
人类自文明开化以来积累的智慧反复告诫人们，贪婪的人会受惩罚。1987年电影《华尔街》至少在一定程度上也是要讲述这个道理，虽然它的结局是开放式的。影片给我印象最深的是Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas饰)那篇臭名昭著的演讲"Greed is good"（这样简单的句式让人立刻联想起中共中央编译局副局长俞可平的2006年12月28日的文章《民主是个好东西》）。在提出这个振聋发聩的判断后，Gekko用了一系列排比句来渲染铺陈，其中一句说：
Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.
道格拉斯籍这段表演抱回了当年的奥斯卡小金人。
维基在介绍此片时这样说：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".
同样的话，在2008年的股东大会上说出来，得到的还会不会是掌声雷动？
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.
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