Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream
In America, the rich are getting richer. Isn't that great? Doesn't that mean there's lots more wealth to go round? Or is it good news for the rich but very bad news for the poor?
740 Park Avenue, Manhattan, is one of the most exclusive addresses in the world, home to some of the richest Americans, the 1% of the 1%. Ten minutes to the north, across the Harlem River, is the other Park Avenue, in the South Bronx. Here, unemployment runs at 19% and half the population need food stamps.
The American Dream of equal opportunities and hard work says you can be born in the Bronx and end up at 740. But is that dream still true? The film argues the super-rich haven't just bought the exclusive addresses – they've bought the whole system and they're running it for themselves.
The U.S. became the world's largest economy because it invented products and then manufactured them with new processes and technology.
It is essential that the U.S. rebuild its manufacturing capabilities - not the assembly-line jobs of yesterday but the high-tech advanced manufacturing of the future - to restart the cycle of invention and production. It's the only way to address the horrendous debt and put Americans back to work.
The problems are compounded by an undereducated, entitled population, a permanently unemployed underclass, lack of universal healthcare, fighting asinine wars and ludicrous government spending however, if the political will is there, the U.S. can emulate Germany, Scandinavia and Japan by paying high wages and running surpluses in manufactured goods.
To accomplish this, the U.S. must make what it invents. However, couple the blatant ignorance of much of the electorate, whose brains are bound by cult-like devotion to some mythical god, with the gross incompetence of their elected officials and the future does not bode well for the American dream.
The foundation of any strong democracy is an educated and healthy population.
The documentary does a fine job of pointing out how the U.S. has dropped the ball on both counts and allowed greedy oligarchs and corrupt professional self-centered politicians to mismanage its priorities beyond belief.
AARGH! AUDIO VOLUME!
I was wearing headphones when watching, and as the movie starts, it hammered my eardrums. Seriously... use some normal audio levels please.
All this mention of the Koch Brothers, and yet no mention of their equivalent on the left: George Soros. It goes both ways, and both parties are to blame for this mess.
I hope people realise that Sctoo Walker wasn't set up by the owner of a pizza shop around the corner...he was set up by people who are far worse than he was. So when you think that justice prevailed...think again...he was nothing but a pawn to the higher up.
Great film, especially relevant with the latest news about a Scott Walker criminal investigation, this film exposes the hypocrisy and political conspiracy of the ultra rich and corrupt politicians, the evil Koch brothers and their ilk. Now Prosecutors are going after the hypocrite and corrupt Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) who is at the center of a criminal conspiracy to illegally coordinate the activities of independent conservative groups during recall elections in his state in 2011 and 2012, according to documents released Thursday and first reported on by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Come on, we can all talk and talk and chat and chat about these things, but when do we bring it into practice? Its like developing a theory without ever testing it!
I propose to just start to share these documentaries, simply to create more consciousness among the general population. Just do it, really.
You know why? I want my kids to grow up in a free world, I'm still young and live in west-europe, where it is still not as crazy as in the U.S. It will be if these guys are not going to be stopped.
I'm sending to Obama all day about how he is supposed to protect the Americans, and care for them. How can he, and not only Mr. President, but also the whole senate let this happen? How can you be so low that you don't want to throw the facts on the table and let people know what is going on? Why are we still learning things on school which creates a false image of the world?
Somebody has to let you know that this happens, or you have to come across these things by coincidence, otherwise you'll simply never know about the kind of things that happen in this unequal world!
I still have faith in humanity that this will be resolved! The psychopaths have to be kicked of their thrones!!
Let's also talk about George Soros and his open checkbook to Democrats, shall we?
Talk about one sided propaganda! They're allowing this to be shown in schools? Really? In all fairness, they should also show "2016- Obama's America" to these kids too.
I think on the next election, we need to focus on who is funding whom.
I'm voting against anyone the Koch Brothers are Funding. And I believe anyone with a good sense in mind should do to. These guys are the puppet masters of everything that has been going wrong in this country for the last decade and a half. Including their relationships with ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Commission), their Involvent in CCA (Private Prisons), and their Lobbying Against finding resolutions in immigration (to keep illegal immigrants in the country to fill up prisons for profit is wrong!!!)
This was fantastic but the Ayn Rand slant was excessive and unnecessary. The wealthy do a great job of convincing the masses to turn their anger against each other and the lower classes - a classic diversion tactic for pick pockets. They cry against the concept of income re-distribution but fail to recognize that it's happening in reverse right now. The top are taking from the middle and have been 30 years.
The documentary didn't actually make an opinion of Ayn Rand's novel. For me it highlighted how desperate the 1%ers are to take an outdated idea and twist it as a doctrine for an outdated system that was tried and has left some pretty dazzling and unquantifiable results. Especially on the environment.
It is a doctrine that was radical back in the day, and it is possibly meant for the lower classes and not the upper classes.
It gets spun out, as lots of things do, to pluck on the heartstrings of American society, as an outrage. To spread fear that something has been taken away from them, to induce fear and soak up all those tax breaks and re-invest in new ways to ruin the planet.
Taxes were always only meant for the poor. It's only when the rich get taxed do we have really big global problems, because they have rigged the system with these in mind. Change it too quickly and we have chaos. It really needs to be a global change and that will never work because every country is fighting against every country over the power of their currency.
Their opinion of Ayn Rand's novel makes no difference to me and to focus on it would be to miss the point. Make no mistake, the deep pockets of the 1% are influencing BOTH conservative and liberal parties. This is a biased, but accurate documentary. But to replace this system with socialism makes no sense either, trading one evil for another. So what now?
This documentary is garbage, i just watched it on Netflix, the way it portrays the issues is obviously slanted towards a socialist view. The worst part was how it completely misrepresented Atlas Shrugged and objectivism. In Atlas Shrugged the largest "moochers" are not the "poor", they are the entitled rich, their lobbyists, and the government power brokers that this documentary is railing against. If anything AS should have been lauded, but no you demeaned it (and lied) because Ayn Rand is anti-socialist and doesn't fit your narrative.
This documentary is biased and it's not advocating anything except replacing a broken system with a different, equally broken system where nothing will change except who controls it. The film makers should be ashamed of themselves.
Now I understand why US is going down the way it goes.Americans just can not handle their greed.
I watched the first half, enjoying the exploration of the shift in wealth concentration over the last several years, and the expose of how the ultra-rich get what they want out of Congress.
They lost me when they misrepresented Ayn Rand's work so miserably, though. It called everything I'd seen up to that point into question.
Just remember there is only "ONE" pie! Therefore although, 1% of 1% have so much wealth... That leaves 99.999999999% that must continue to work so that all the goods and services sold by the 1% of 1% can continue to live the lavish lifestyle!
Imagine that tomorrow gasoline becomes obsolete and hydrogen becomes the fuel of the future! The Koch's would have to go on welfare... Poetic justice...
One day you'll see the pendulum of life strike hard and when it does come not even our elected officials will be able to stop it.
If you imagine for a moment that the 99.99% can not pay for the goods and services the 1% of 1% will suffer greatly! Until then, let them enjoy the wealth that they have accumulated! They earned it the old fashioned way.... Rob, cheat and steal... Rob from by not paying their fair share of taxes... Cheat because they have paid, the lawmakers to make them wealthier... and Steal because there is no law that will put them in jail... Look at the global economy's demise over the last half decade! Did the rich get richer? YES! did the poor lose, YES...
Understand that it is what it is and no human on this earth can stop them.
Now ask yourself this QUESTION? WHAT IF YOU WERE ONE OF THE 1% of 1%? WHAT WOULD YOU REALLY DO... NOT JUST TALK ABOUT IT BUT WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
That's a wrap for now... God Bless us all, One Nation with liberty and freedom for all.
So billionaires live in that old crappy ugly building?!? AHAHAHAAHAAAHAHAAAA!!!!! love it.
Every thing we see in this doc. that balances the books for the rich is made possible by Privatized Banking, when we printed our own intrest free money without privatized banks everyone made money. That was taken care of by Privatized Banking assasination of every president that apposed Privatized Banking, virtually every President that has ever been assasinsted. Privatized Banking keeps the people in a constant stae of debt that will never be paid off.
How come the planes of 911 didn't hit 740 Park Avenue, Manhattan, oh yeh, because they helped plan and funded the False Flag 911.
We are only born equal, after that the books are stacked one way or the other depending on how much money your parents had whenyou were born and how much of that was stolen by the privatized banking industry of the ne wworld order. The ignorance of the American people still amazes me still choosing one party over another party thinking that they are making a difference. There is only one party the "Privatized Banking Party" it is a government 'Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich' controling the media,( what we see on tv is bulls**t), education, ( what we were taught as our history is bulls**t ) Industry, ( control production to keep prices high) competition, (there is none, companies meet secretly to set prices nation wide, availablities of utilities cannot cross borders just like mafia territories resulting in no competition between utility companies). We are so busy hording our little bundle of cash we can't see that we are just like the people we put in office. Money makes you mean and uncaring. All of these rich self centered, disgusting individual have to say is GOD BLESS AMERICA and the ignorant blind sheep wiil kiss their *ss. Oh, by the way God Bless America.
Really Good Documentary!!
The US has become one of the worlds least socially mobile countries.
If you don't like living in USSA or any other "free" country get out while you still can because it is all downhill from here.
USSA is facing another civil war this its the fed's versus the people.
If money is your priority in life, fine, go for it. But what some of us have a problem with is the clear widespread fraud that can clearly be observed. Rewards normally require risk, in a free market that is. But we have now a system where people expect to collect rewards without any of the risks: making highly leveraged risky bets and blackmailing the rest of society into bailing out the losses when they fail miserably. We no longer have a free market. Money is being used to buy tools to rig the game. It is a monopoly where some players are not allowed to loose. If they start loosing (bad luck or stupidity) all the other players have to give them money so they can continue to play, and if there is not enough money they can jump to the position “print” and make sure the game continues. Of course it is no longer a game is it? It is an aimless and unsustainable spiral, “players” aimlessly going around the board with increasingly worthless piles of money.
I am not sure these people ever think and ask themselves: what is the point? For me money is just a tool to have more freedom. But these people are not free. They are bound to their treadmill just like a minimum wage worker. Being able to buy stuff does not make you free or happy or cultured or smart or healthy.
Some of us have taken their chips, gone home and are no longer playing the game.
1: KIll the rich.
2: Government take over the businesses.
3: More unions.
4: ???
5: Profit!!
I literally felt sick watching this. The land of opportunity? Ayn Rand has a lot to answer for.