Traditional Capitalism In Glengarry Glen Ross By David Mamet

Superior Essays
During the early 1980s, Americans of all races, sexes, and social statuses subscribed to the notion that one could be successful through hard work and determination. In his dark comedy Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet exposes this to be, as stated previously, nothing more than a notion. In this two-act play, working class men, including young and cunning salesman, Ricky Roma, do business in a sales office under the supervision of meek office manager John Williamson. The salesmen are forced into a competition within the office where the top salesman receives a Cadillac, and the two lowest salesmen of the month lose their jobs. As could be expected, the men try desperately to sell their real estate using any means necessary to close a deal, often …show more content…
By exposing Williamson as a company man and a beneficiary of crony capitalism, Mamet undermines traditional capitalist ideas by asserting that Williamson only holds his leadership role because of personal connections to his superiors; similarly, America’s president-elect, Donald Trump, undermines traditional capitalist ideas as his vast wealth can be attributed to numerous familial connections with large corporations. As a clear perpetuator of crony capitalism, John Williamson’s heavy reliance on personal connections parallels the inception of Donald Trump’s oligarchical empire, proving that capitalism in the traditional sense is no more a reality in current day than it was during the …show more content…
While even disgruntled liberals and skeptics struggle to undermine the extent of Trump’s wealth, there is tremendous controversy surrounding his true economic knowledge and means of upward mobility in the business world. Many of Trump’s supporters rave at the idea that he could use his business experience to transform the economy to provide greater benefits and opportunity to middle-class and working-class Americans, yet there is little evidence in Trump’s past to support his ability to enact this transformation or relate to these “lower class” Americans. Traditional capitalist thinking would support the idea that one could, for instance, take out a small loan, start a firm in an industry with little to no barriers to entry, and grow that firm into a successful corporation through determination and moderate knowledge about America’s capitalist financial market. In contrast, Trump in no way adheres to this ideological mold that many Americans would swear by as absolute truth. His idea of a small loan, one million dollars, was roughly eighty-three times the salary of the average American in the year 1975 when the loan was granted (Average). Furthermore, Trump not only inherited his father’s multi-million-dollar company, but

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