A million dollars was a big problem in pop culture in the nineties.
It was everywhere you looked.
The song If I had a million dollars The Barenaked Ladies released in 1992. The texts were all about the dream of how you would spend so much money:
If I had a million dollars
If I had a million dollars
Well, I would buy a house for you
I would buy a house for you
And if I had a million dollars
If I had a million dollars
I would buy you furniture for your house
Maybe a nice chesterfield or an Ottoman
Unfaired proposal came out in 1993. Robert Redford’s rich businessman character offered Woody Harrelson $ 1 million down-on-my-luck to sleep with his wife (played by Demi Moore).
In the Disney film Blank checkA small child gets a blank check from a rich criminal after running over his bike and almost touches the child with his car. The boy cashed in the empty check, you guessed it, a million dollars.
The millionaire next door was released in 1996. The book still appears on the shelves of Wealth Managers (including mine) to this day.
Then you had those weird publishers who erased the house (what did they even do?) Advertisements where they teased that Ed McMahon and the “price patrol” would come to your home with one of those giant checks for a million dollars.
In Austin Powers, who came out in 19971Dr. Evil is planning to keep the world money from a nuclear attack for …
Who wants to become a millionaire? With Regis, Philbin became a cultural phenomenon in 1999.
John Carpenter was the first winner of the prize of one million dollars when he used his telephone-a-friend famous in the last question to say: “Hello porridge, I don’t need your help. I just wanted to let you know that I am going to win the million dollars.”
But my favorite pop culture artifact of a million dollars from the 1990s comes from Office space.
One of the most memorable scenes of the film is also around a million dollars.
Peter has a beer with his relaxed construction worker Buurman Lawrence when he asks him to dream to touch the empire:
Peter: Lawrence, what would you do if you had a million dollars?
Lawrence: I tell you what I would do, man. Two chicks at the same time, man.
Peter: That’s it? If you had a million dollars, you would do that, two
Chicks at the same time?
Lawrence: Damn straight, man. I’ve always wanted to do that. I think if I was one
Millionaire, I could connect that. Chicks dig guys with money.
Lawrence then asks Peter what he would do with a million dollars:
Peter: Except two chicks at the same time? Nothing. I would do nothing. I would relax. I would be on my ass all day. I would do nothing.
Lawrence: Well, you don’t need a million dollars to do nothing, man. View my cousin. He is brutal, don’t do a shit.
I never realized how deep this scene was when I saw it as a teenager, but there are some solid financial lessons in the game. Lawrence has levels for him.
Many people have a pension number, assets or income level for which they shoot.
If I could just get to that number, I could retire, start a company, make that trip, get children, finally be happy, etc.
In biographyWill Smith talks about the difference between becoming famous, being famous and losing fame:
Being famous is about as much fun as the material world has to offer. Be famous, a bit of a mixed bag; But fading famous sucks.
I think the result of money is that getting rich is fun, being rich is a mixed bag and losing your wealth sucks.
But you don’t necessarily need a million dollars to do what you want in life.
Michael and I spoke about office space, personal finances and much more about this week’s video of Animal Spirits:
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1I was a first -year student in high school when this film was released. Wait it to see 12-15 friends in a full theater during the opening evening. It brought the house down. Too bad we don’t make comic films anymore.
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