Two American Families - Bill Moyers

[Iwillnevergiveup]

This is a moving, at times heartbreaking story of one black family and one white family in Milwaukee that were followed through the '90's and into the 2000's. One of Moyers' very best!

http://billmoyers.com/2013/07/10/two-american-families/

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Saw it last nite. Highly Rec. n/t

[Iwillnevergiveup]

2. The American dream illusion

Alex Pareene writing in Salon: “The film doesn’t say so – it primarily just tells the story of these families – but all of these people are the victims not just of 'the economy' but of a series of specific policy decisions made, over the last few decades... Two American Families makes a pretty convincing case that if you weren’t born into the 1 percent, and a few things had gone wrong, there would’ve been no digging out for you, no matter how hard or for how long you worked.”

[SheilaT]

3. I watched that and it was both sad and instructive.

Sad because of what's happened in the past twenty years. Instructive because it might possibly contain lessons for us all.

The most important lesson, one that I first noticed at least twenty years ago, is how much money it takes just to survive.

I've read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books many times. For those of you who have only seen the truly dreadful TV series, pause now, read the books, and then come back.

Among the many things I got from those books was how very little cash it took 150 years ago to survive. Granted, the Ingalls family didn't have very many material possessions, but back then not very many people did. Yes, there were the rich, even then, who had a lot more than the peasants, but these books aren't about rich vs. poor. They're about a particular way of life that was relatively common. A roof over the head. Some clothes to wear. Enough food to make it to the next season. Most of us would not have been crazy about that life, but it was the life a lot of people had.

Fast forward to now. The rock bottom basics include an awful lot more than they used to. TV. Cable. Internet. Cell phones. Designer fingernails. A car. Electricity. A radio. CD player and CDs. MP3. Downloading videos. An apartment or house, with a separate bedroom for each person.

It's easy to criticize -- and as I watched the show I kept on thinking of "mistakes" I thought those two families were making -- but it really comes down to the vastly increased need for *things*, material things that didn't exist even twenty years ago.

I feel as if I'm living on practically nothing, but I have a landline and a cell phone and internet. I don't have a TV or cable, but I get to watch what I want because of the internet. I have a car. Okay, so it's a Honda Civic, meaning it's pretty good on gas and it is paid for, but I still have a car.

I know that there are those here who live on vastly less than I do, and I can't imagine how they do it. The Bill Moyers' piece is in a way about all of us. The details may vary, but the pressures are still there.

Each of those two families did everything right, at least as far as they could, or as they saw were right. They were trapped by circumstances beyond their control. They worked hard, and didn't succeed. It's galling that such hard work has such little payoff.

[Warpy]

4. Bugger the bankers! Bugger the MBAs!

Pass it on.

These are such good people. Both families have had to struggle too much for no reward, whatsoever. The whole thing just makes me sick, especially the way they're blaming themselves for losing a war they had no idea how to fight.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

5. The contrast between the fathers

was very telling to me. Mr. Newman seemed quite depressed from the very beginning of the story, and found it more and more difficult to relate to his kids. Mr. Stanley, on the other hand, seemed more involved with his brood of 5 and remained upbeat. The moms were both go-getters throughout all the years, but Mrs. Newman never took the opportunity to get more education. Mrs. Stanley did her best to build a real estate business, but suffered from discrimination. How heartbreaking for the Newmans to lose their home and then have it sell for $35,000. Typical of Chase.