The bogus side of bonus culture

By Julian Delasantellis

In the 1987 movie Wall Street, union leader Carl Fox (Martin Sheen) sees through the nefarious machinations of evil corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in a way that even his own son Bud ( Charlie Sheen), starstruck by ambition and the wealth and luxury of Gekko's lifestyle, cannot. At a meeting where Gekko offers a corporate buyout that would supposedly save Carl Fox's floundering airline, all but Carl are taken in by Gekko's supposed beneficence.

"There came into Egypt a Pharaoh who did not know," Carl warns from the Book of Exodus. "The rich been doing it to the poor since the beginning of time. The only difference between the pyramids and the Empire State Building is the Egyptians didn't allow unions."