Brewster's Millions
BY CHRISTOPHER NULL / November 25, 1985
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Cast & Credits
Monty Brewster:
Richard Pryor Spike Nolan: John Candy Angela Drake: Lonette McKee Directed By Walter Hill. Written By Timothy Harris. Running Time: 97 Minutes. |
- Great Uncle Rupert Horn
Montgomery Brewster's billionaire
great-granduncle has died and left him a choice of
inheriting $1 million or $300 million. Sounds like a
simple choice, but
there's a catch: to qualify for the $300 million, Monty has
to spend the $30 million in thirty days--and have
absolutely no assets to show at the end of the month without
destroying, gambling, or giving away the money. It
seems the old man wants to teach Monty a lesson about
wealth, and cause him to grow so thoroughly sick of money
that he'll never be tempted by excess again. To make things
even more complicated, as a condition of the will, he can't tell anyone why
he's squandering his inheritance or he'll lose the
remainder. Brewster's predicament is an
excellent illustration of the economic concept of opportunity costs, and the
idea that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Monty's decision whether to give up a
sure thing and risk losing it all against the possibility of a greater gain in
the future is an apt metaphor for every economic investment decision.
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ASSIGNMENT Look for examples of each of these economic comcepts from the excerpt: Economic Choices What would you
choose: the $1 million now, or spending the $30 million in
30 days with the possibility of getting $300 million
later? Why? |