The Wolf of Wall Street

The question, “is capitalism the monster or are the agents who use it the monster?” is a difficult question because it requires subjective judgments on ethics that devolve from objective answers. With that in mind, a utilitarian approach seems the best approach to take when dealing with ethics. Now, the real question is, “has capitalism done more good or has Jordan Belfort done more good?”

Jordan Belfort is the hedonistic protagonist in The Wolf of Wall Street. He perfectly captures the essence of a greedy, exploitive capitalist. The story goes that Jordan was a regular blue chip stockbroker, but then a recession hits and he loses his job. Well, Jordan takes a small job at a pink chip brokerage firm, and he determines that a lot of potential profit is available if one were willing to take it. One thing leads to another and Jordan along with his rag-tag New Jersey boys are running a major New York brokerage firm specializing in illegal pump-and-dump schemes.

            Clearly, Jordan Belfort exploited people for his own ends without giving much back in return. Jordan had a lot of positive utility along with his compatriots, but his means were a zero-sum game. The reason he was able to accumulate so much positive utility was that he took a lot of utility from the people who propped up his pump-and-dump scheme, the average investor. Some of these investors must have faced bankruptcy; huge decreases in total assets etc., clearly, evidence of negative utility and a lot of negative utility at that. It’s safe to say that Jordan Belfort did more damage than good.

            Capitalism encompasses the mechanisms Jordan Belfort used to exploit, so in a sense all the negative utility that Jordan Belfort netted is also negative utility that capitalism is responsible for as well. However, Jordan Belfort’s impact on capitalism’s net utility is just a drop in the bucket. The improvements in technological knowledge, the creation of industries like health care, and the overall increase in wealth across the board, it is obvious that capitalism has had a large positive impact on our lives and the lives of our predecessors. These improvements were possible because capitalism is a system that enables trade, specialization, and incentives for progress. Yes, these concepts have resulted in exploitation and the death of communes, but the overall increase in standard of living and wealth far out weighs the instances of wolf among the sheep. Therefore, capitalism has resulted in a net positive of utility, which means the Wolf of Wall Street is the monster not the Dollar.