Making a killing

In the 1987 movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko stands up at a shareholder meeting for Teldar Paper and in his smooth, ruthless manner, gives the infamous line: “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good.”

His character goes onto make the point that greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Many things have changed since Wall Street hit the movie theaters. The 2010 sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps tells us that Gekko served a short sentence for the insider trading he committed in the original film.

Greed though is still very much alive and well in our society. Here’s two cases straight from recent news pages:

Give me what I want, or I’ll take my ball and go somewhere else! 

When the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl in February, many of the players and executives thanked the fans for their love and support. How has the team rewarded that love? The Chiefs’ president announced last week that the team would leave town if an upcoming sales tax vote doesn’t win approval. 

Say what? Leave town? Really?

The Chiefs are planning an $800 million renovation to Arrowhead Stadium and have indicated that they will contribute $300 million toward the overall project, with public resources needing to come up with the rest through the sales tax and other means.

The project is contingent on the extension of a tax of three-eighth of a cent by voters in Jackson County, Missouri, on April 2. That money has been used for upkeep at Arrowhead and neighboring Kauffman Stadium, which the Kansas City Royals intend to leave for a new downtown ballpark before the current lease expires after the 2030 season.

Public funds have been used to fund the construction of private stadiums for years. There’s nothing new there, but that still doesn’t make it right. It gets worse when you factor in that the four adult children of Lamar Hunt retain ownership of the Chiefs and have a $24.8 billion fortune, according to Forbes.

Oh, I have no doubt that the vote on the sales tax vote will go through and I’m sure the Hunt family does lots of great things for the community. And yes, it’s fair to mention that Arrowhead Stadium is the third oldest stadium in the NFL. However, the Hunt family may as well have a noose around the city and the region. I can’t help but wonder when does a family like the Hunts feel that they have “enough?” 

Money, money, money, give me all of your money! 

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all laid off large number of employees this year despite producing record profits and strong economic signs. The tech industry has been averaging more than 780 layoffs per day this year, outpacing 2023, despite broad economic gains.

At the same time, Microsoft and Amazon, which recently cut jobs in gaming and streaming respectively, are simultaneously planning huge investments in Artificial Intelligence. It’s a crazy paradigm. For workers, though, it hasn’t necessarily been good, leading to job insecurity and a reevaluation of career paths in the industry.

While I get that business can be unpredictable and that’s the name of the game, but where’s the loyalty and appreciation for workers. Yes, the tech firms will see short term gains from the layoffs and shareholders definitely have been liking the moves, but I know that I would be hard pressed to return to work or have any loyalty to any of these companies.

Yes, greed is real, but I’m not sure it’s good.