Many of the scenes in this docu are obviously staged and come off as facetious. I got a slight whiff of racism that's been swept under the carpet. The director refuses to show the white lower class,which is one way I believe the MSM use to frame wealth inequality. What about showing the white families poisoned by coal mining & fracking in PA,e obesity epidemic and the wage slavery that causes it,non-urban poor,the waste created by the amount the wealthiest 10% consume? The most pressing issue I believe he doesn't address: unemployment, which is a relatively new form of suffering. HG Wells wrote the Time Traveler in response to newly created overproduction which allowed huge masses of people to become unemployable. Mr.Johnson should read Nickle & Dimed to Death as well. I get the sense Mr.Johnson portrays wealthy people as simply the middle class with lots 'o money, the way he sets up some of the casual scenes with various advisers & family members. This is the most interesting part of the film because you get a sense of the conflict between the MSM created aesthetic portraying the wealthy as glamorous VS the film which goes out of it's way to portray individuals like Milton Friedman in casual settings. Mr. Johnson also address the media in showing the Italian count/media figure which seems to conclude that the American people demand the fetishism of wealth. It is subtle dig at Americans believe in egalitarianism by suggesting that secretly Americans dream of the old world aristocracy. In reality, the medias portrayal of wealth is a new form of propaganda,either to provide escapism,make excuses for the wealth gap, or spread the idea that eventually you too will be rich in America. I would say the biggest flaw in this docu is the refusal to address unemployment,which has largely been created by the actions of the wealthy 1%. I find the Kinkos founder mocking of Hollywoods portrayal of wealthy business to be funny because we continually see the people in this film saying that capitalism is the a flawed system but the only way to get things done, that realize people will be hurt by gentrification but they do it anyways, that the selfish drive to be wealthy is what make America successful. In doing so, they become real life caricature of the very same Hollywood villains. These people seem unmoved or oblivious to the real problems that hurt millions of people in this country like unemployment caused by cheap illegal immigrants,manufacturing bases moved to China, and the whole nations school system being stripped of funding. Their tactics to excuse the reality they play a major part in shaping is: 1. Look at those very very poor -black- people in Africs or inner-city America, 2. Well,capitalism is the only system this raises the wealth of all classes, and 3. Attempts to manipulate our common interest in providing for our families by attempting to show the hoarding of wealth by the 1% families as simply providing for their kids futures as opposed to what it truly is: the accumulation and holding of power, which by it's very nature nepotism and evil. Finally we see underlying racism in the film by it's subtitling of Jamican farmers whose accent is clearly audible(an insidious and underhanded tactic used by Mr.Johnson which would make Goebbels proud),the police officer pausing before describing the sugar can workers as "ethnic, very ethnic"(was really about to use the n word),the officers description of the poor worker community as being talented in spite of it as it has produced several football players(the subtext: all an AA is good for is sports), and the Kinkos founder's description of black and white to be a fitting color combo for a bum to be wearing. In light of the increasing xenophobia in America, I find the underlying racism,which maybe the filmmaker didn't even notice(though I doubt it as if he did and found it repulsive he would have commented on it in the narration) to be disturbing. It seems that racism could be a natural response to a class system which treats black workers & their kids like dirt,as to care for these people would undermine the entire structure of capitalism, To sum it up: Mr.Johnson has unintentionally made a film that helps portray the wealthy as similar to the fascist ghosts in The Shining....
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles." Ronald Reagan
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles." Ronald Reagan
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