Happy Birthday Adam!

Jonathan Dee portrays the parental roles in a family of the new millenium in The Privileges.  Dee, a parent himself, depicts a married couple where one spouse strives to earn enough wealth the other spouse can live in comfort with hopes that the lavish lifestyle will bring happiness to their relationship.  Adam, in the Moreys' case, embraced the role of breadwinner and attempted to provide all the wealth he believed his family needed to live happily. Adam, however, has the problem of taking risks beyond the necessary lengths to reach prosperity. Dee notes that Adam's practices "[weren't] just about the money," instead more of an obligation to sustain power and leadership over less daring brokers in his insider trading circle (123). Adam's minimal ambition for gaining wealth and more interest in the leadership factor portray him as power hungry in addition to selfish. These traits result in continued patterns of taking serious financial risks for hardly any significant gain. Dee reveals that without Adam's shady financial decisions the Morey family "wouldn't feel the money's absence at all," which leads me to question Adam's morals as he continued his sketchy business (123). I believe Adam has a serious need for some sort of intervention to relieve him of the financial risks he takes. Therefore, as a gift to Adam from me for his birthday (hypothetically of course) I would invest in some counseling for the serious financial gambling he did. In addition to providing an intervention to his risky ways I would also encourage Adam to rethink his role as a parent. Like Adam's own partner Devon, I would like to pose the question: "Why are you doing it still?" (144). Hopefully my attempted shot at using logos to change Adam coupled with the intervention would make him quit his practices but just in case I would purchase a gift for his birthday again to remind him of the emotional role of a father. Maybe a nice framed picture of the beautiful Morey family to put in perspective who Adam lives for. A picture of his family may trigger a revelation about fatherhood that the responsibility of a dad revolves around providing love and teaching morals to one's children. With those two factors encouraged, love and morals, maybe Adam could readjust his own morals to prioritize a family that needs him for his love, not his overseas bank accounts that they have no dependence on. For his birthday I would like to encourage Adam to place more attention on his loved ones for their sake, rather than his insider trading circle.