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Roger And Me Analysis

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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