In Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), the aspect of entrepreneurship that I find most interesting is the innovation of the car that Tucker comes up with. He decides to add safety features like seatbelts and safer windshields, as well as, putting the engine in the back and making the cars more aerodynamic. Whenever the big three car producing companies in the United States hear about this, though, they and the SEC go after Tucker. This puts him in a trial on the basis of fraud, although he is ultimately found not guilty.
I think the plot of this movie is entrepreneurial because, it shows how challenging entering the market can be for small entrepreneurs. The competition is fierce, and when the new entrepreneur is able to come up with a valuable idea, the preexisting competitors do not take kindly to them. This is interesting to me because, in my opinion, the market should be doing its best to innovate for the benefit of consumers instead of being a huge battle on the individual business front, but ultimately, businesses want to do anything possible to increase their profits. This is challenging for small entrepreneurs, because unlike larger businesses, they do not have the notoriety that allows them to reach customers even when odds are against them, even though they are desiring the same fame and fortune that compares to the larger companies.
As seen in the movie, once Tucker's cars reached the eyes of society, they were very happily accepted, but the grasp was not on a large enough scale to make a significant difference in the market, or for the benefit of Tucker's business. Ultimately, situations such as these happen all the time, and this stifling of innovation is not always the best case scenario for consumers.
As discussed in class, innovation and invention provide value for consumers, and the more of these two that exist, the better the optionality for society. Therefore, whenever government entities or preexisting companies make an effort to stifle budding entrepreneurs, this has a negative effect on society and on the market.
Although generating revenue is important for industry of any kind, especially when production is steady and demand is increasing, valuing revenue at a level that is so high worsens the market because it takes away opportunity costs that are of almost equal value for consumers. To put this thought into an example that will relate to the movie, I will include the automotive industry. Perhaps in another scenario, things would have worked out for Tucker, and his car would have been a significantly valuable automotive option for a consumer that was not looking for a car that was sold by the big three. This inclusion of Tucker's car could have generated a high opportunity cost for more customers, more value than what occurs in the real situation where he is unable to continue producing the cars. That is the importance of optionality relating to this movie. The value that a fourth successful car producer would have created for numerous consumers was ultimately snuffed out, thus keeping the opportunity cost lower. Although keeping this sort of competition out of the market is ultimately better for individual businesses themselves, these actions only hurt the market and consumers more by not allowing valuable alternatives into circulation. The unfortunate truth behind this, as well, is also how budding entrepreneurs have almost no way to defend themselves when situations such as these arise, even though they themselves are hoping to attain the same fame and fortune that larger companies have achieved.
