I. Introduction
Roger and Me is a documentary from 1989 by Michael Moore about the deindustrialization of American society. The documentary uses Flint, Michigan, the world’s headquarters of General Motors, as a case study for deindustrialization. In addition to, showing how the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Deindustrialization, which is the decline in industrial activity such as manufacturing in a region, has negative economic and social consequences. As we see in Moore’s documentary, when General Motors cut back and left Flint, Michigan, it left the people poor, helpless, and unemployed. In this paper, I will apply Roger and Me to conflict theory and the three great economists, Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, and Karl Marx, to
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The level of entertainment distracts from the people in distress, and a difference can especially be seen between the rich and the poor. While the poor are losing jobs and losing hope, the rich in the Flint area are having extravagant parties, but hiring local laid off employees to work at the party as human statues in order to show that they are not insensitive to what is happening in their community. Flint has an attitude of yes we can towards unemployment and focuses on distracting from the issue and boosting morale. They do this through having President Regan, an evangelical preacher, and others of influence speak to residents; rather than finding ways to solve the issues, Flint was about to face. The only attempts at resolution we see Flint take is trying to change the economy into one focused on hospitality and tourism, which inevitably fails due to lack of interest in visiting Flint, Michigan.
Moore, however, focuses on the individuals in Flint and shows the suffering and panic. Between mental breakdowns, evictions, and strange new jobs, losing General Motors completely strips many of Flint’s working class of power and resources, making it nearly impossible for them to
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General Motor’s philosophy is likely to have been based on Smithian economics, because it enforces all aspects of Adam Smith’s theory. Adam Smith felt that in order to have the best society you need to think about yourself and your own self-betterment. He believed people went into business to make money and G-d wanted it this way. Smith’s ideology is one that favors a laissez faire attitude and deregulation, as there is an invisible hand in the market place. Adam Smith would defend General Motors saying they are trying to maximize profits and think about their own self-betterment, to which, John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx, would definitely
There are many ways in which the documentary uses visuals, sounds, and emotions to help us see the full aspect of the situation that Flint is in. One of the very first scenes that we are shown in the documentary is a single police car patrolling the vacant streets. This adds a sense of
The Flint water crisis has left no one from the damage, even the pets are getting sick of the poisoned water. That was what residents Lee and Ernie of Flint Michigan saw with their cat. Flint is a city in Michigan with a total population of approximately one hundred thousand residents. The issue with the water for Flints and its residents stated in 2014 when the city decided to switch from their water resource from the city of Detroit to a local river. Immediately after the switch residents filed complaints about the water’s smell and color. In Ryan Felton’s “Flint’s Water Crisis: What went wrong,” it is apparent that the crisis should not have happened, and that flint was neglected just because it was an impoverished city.
There was an announcement, given by Roger Smith, stating that many of the General Motors factories would be closing down. Hamper describes it as “My beleaguered hometown was like some banged-up middleweight resting its rump on the ropes, covering up its soft belly, hoping to only last out the round” (68). The town of Flint was facing yet another recession, and in the process of becoming the poorest town in Michigan. For Hamper, it was either stay in Flint where there were no jobs, or relocate to Pontiac, Michigan and commute for work. Prior to transferring to Pontiac, he would be laid off for about nine months. Hamper collected unemployment and quickly found that he was getting more money by collecting rather than working. Finally the time came for him to commute to Pontiac. Hamper finishes working in Pontiac and moves back to working for General Motors in
Latimer also uses details about the good in Flint to real in emotions from the readers because what was once good has turned to be bad, yet the Republicans seem to care less. Latimer uses the example of the General Motors manufacturer being in their city but left “because nothing has gone right”. The affect of the details of his experiences and a small background of the city is the perfect appeal of
In Two American Families, a documentary film which produced by Bill Moyers, it follows the two middle class families in Milwaukie, one black and one white, for over a decade as they struggle to achieve the “American Dream”. This documentary reveals the struggle of some American families who work hard and follow the social order in the society, but have fallen as a victim in a struggling economy to a series of policy decisions made. The hand of policy ineffectively steered the lives of the two families featured, the Neumann’s and Stanley’s, despite their hard work ethic and sincere determination to succeed. There are many policy implications that played a role in this documentary, including those around education, institutional racism, taxation, overseas jobs and social security. However, the main factors that drive those policy implications are minimum wage, health care, the foreclosure crisis, and debt dependency. In this essay, I will go into in more details about those main factors that both two American families suffered from the series of economic depression.
This documentary is written, directed and produced by Michael Moore and is about the social repercussions of capitalism as well as corporate and government issues that conflict with the basic needs of people and their families. Moore takes a liberal humanistic look at the consequences of General Motors closing down several auto plants in Flint, Michigan in the late 1980's and what can happen when a city is almost completely reliant on a single industry that shuts down or moves away. Moore also looks at the failure of Flint city officials to reverse the effects of the closures with trends like Auto World which had little effect (Moore, 1989).
John Galt was a worker at a factory called Twentieth Century Motor Company which implemented a policy that ultimately led the company into its own destruction. The Twentieth Century Motor Company operated on the radical plan of paying its workers based on their proclaimed needs, and those who worked the hardest were required to help those who did not. Outraged by this, Galt refuses to work and swears that he will “stop the engine of the world.” As a result, brilliant industrialists begin to slowly disappear out of society forcing the collapse of capitalism to give rise to bureaucrats, politicians, and looters who find government intervention as the only means of fixing the country’s economic situation.
Karl Marx is the founder of conflict theory which views a society that is capable of being a principle of competition and conflict. Conflict theory is simple to understand in which it suggests that society has inequality between people and social groups. Conflict theory would suggest that conflicts and tensions emerge when power, resources, and status are distributed unevenly between distinct groups in society. Its groups who are
Post-Industrialization: an attack on the individual “Roger & Me” (1989) by the famous activist documentary film maker Michael Moore explores the themes of post–industrialism in his home town of Flint, Michigan while trying to track down Roger Smith the GM of General Motors who began shutting down Flint auto plants in 1985, eliminating over 30,000 jobs. Within the post-industrial theme, the film explores several key ideas that tie neatly into the concept of “the attack on the individual.” The key ideas are found in Flint’s crime escalation post factory shutdowns, the trend of the wealthy distancing themselves from the masses, and finally the relocation of factories and mechanization of labor. The film “Roger & Me” encapsulates how profit driven
Modern economic society can be described as a combination of certain points from several theories combined into one. Changing dynamics and economic needs of nations has spawned a development of various, and contrasting, economic systems throughout the world. Perhaps the two most contrasting philosophies seen in existence today are that of capitalism and communism. The two philosophers most notably recognized for their views on these economic systems are Adam Smith and Karl Marx. This paper will identify several fundamental aspects of economic philosophy as described by Smith and Marx, and will compare and contrast the views of these
Since the early days of the United States, the Founding Fathers and other brilliant minds sought ways to understand and make sense of the inner workings of society and the economic market. Out of the many thinkers and developers of that time period, perhaps none made so great an impact on American society as the Scottish contemporary philosopher and political economist, Adam Smith—who is most known for his influential work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, By the early nineteenth century, other streams of economic theory emerged from various individuals who were also influenced by the ideas of Smith. Some of these individuals included David Ricardo, Karl Marx and later John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman—each of whom contributed their own ideas on economic activity. However, it was Smith’s ideas on capitalism and his laissez-faire approach to free markets that have transcended other economic theories and continue to impact American economic thought to this day.
Without expressing beliefs or ideas, the thoughts simply exist in the person’s mind with no purpose. Something must be done with these ideas in order to give them meaning. In her piece, Goodbye Columbus, Mac McClelland voices her opinions on the employment and economy of Columbus, Ohio. McClelland writes this piece for the purpose of spreading awareness about the harsh working conditions, underpaying jobs, and unemployment inducing budget cuts in the city of Columbus. By following the story of two of her best friends and their daughter going through tough times, including many other personal experiences, McClelland shows the harmful effect the struggling economy has on many families throughout the city.
There is perhaps not a more famous ongoing dialectic argument in the field of political economy than the one between Adam Smith and Karl Marx in regards to capitalism. The two thinkers, although coming to radically different conclusions about the outcomes of the capitalist system for all parties involved, agree on a surprising number of ideas such as labor being the source of commodities’ value, as well as the fact that the division of labor increases productivity. However, their different conceptions of what determines the price of a commodity, the driving force behind and the effects of the division of labor, and the purpose of the capitalist system have widespread implications that cause their holistic arguments to diverge considerably.
Karl Marx, a philosopher, journalist, and revolutionary socialist, is considered the father of conflict theory. He pointed out the continuous competition for power between different classes in society and how the powerful groups exploit those with less. He suggested social order is
Karl Marx: Conflict Theory The most influential socialist thinker from the 19th century is Karl Marx. Karl Marx can be considered a great philosopher, social scientist, historian or revolutionary. Marx proposed what is known as the conflict theory. The conflict theory looks at how certain social interactions occur through conflict. People engage in conflict everyday to gain more power then others in society. Karl Marx is known for studying the conflicts that occur between different classes. Karl Marx has introduced some radical ideas and theories to society through his writings. As the industrial revolution moved forward in society, so did the widening gap between class structures. Karl Marx studied the differences arising between the