"Just Add Water"

Recalls to our readings, from the movie "Just Add Water":
The idea of greed from our reading of "Faustian Economics" is one which may not seem to be the most obvious in this movie but certainly is. We see this through Dirk and how he basically runs the entire town. He makes people pay tolls just to get onto their own streets. This is the epitome of greed because Dirk only does this because he can; he has the power to do it in that town. Also, the fact that him and his friends rob the new Chevron station and delivery trucks just shows how greedy he is. The rest of the town is suffering and barely getting by while he has control over everything in Trona, California.
The idea of “Do we create what we observe through the act of our observations?” (230) from "The Reality Tests" is evident in this movie through everyone's actions. In a sense the general meaning of this quote is strongly conveyed to us. Through the lines when Danny Devito character asks Ray if he ever had any dreams and if he was ever going to follow them. Ray is able to begin to create some change in this town when he realizes exactly how bad things are getting. The last scene that we saw was when he was breaking into Dirk's house looking at the boxes that he had just received. Also, going in the opposite direction of this, the people in Trona create their own crappy world by not having any hope or even thinking about a better future. They merely sit by and allow Dirk to run the entire town. Dirk is able to see his "dreams" through this because he takes over a weak town and does whatever he wants there.
The idea of "an era of creative destruction” (292) is one from the article "Big Foot" yet this idea is also shown in the movie "Just Add Water". We see how dirk is taking over the town, however it is not through force or violence for the most part. He is doing all of this through business, most of it is illegitimate however. Ray tells Danny Devito's character that Dirk bought up everything in the town a while back when the government declared the place a toxic waste site and most people had moved out. That was a business venture for him. Now he has his own Meth Lab and has his friends keep as toll booth attendants in a way for whoever wants to get onto their streets. This is where the destructiveness of his creativity comes into play, yes he is creating new business ventures for himself in the town but he is also ruining the lives of almost everyone that lives in the town. Most of the adults are drunks or are on drugs. He is destroying the town for his own benefit and is doing it in a number of ways.