Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream⎜WHY POVERTY?⎜(Documentary)

this stretch of Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is the wealthiest neighborhood in New York City this is where the people at the top of the ladder live the upper crust the ultra-rich but this street is about a lot more than money it's about political power the rich here haven't just used their money to buy fancy cars private jets and mansions they've also used it to rig the game in your favor over the last 30 years they've enjoyed unprecedented prosperity from a system that they increasingly control but if you had north for about 10 minutes this Park Avenue comes to an Anna at the Harlem River on the other side of the water there was another Park Avenue this is the South Bronx home to America's poorest congressional district there are 700,000 people 16 almost 40% of making less than $40 from here the last 30 years and looked very different than the view from Manhattan's Park Avenue people here have seen the ages for the cost of almost everything else they've lost their jobs in a recession caused by bankers across the river they watched the children struggle in failing schools and they've ended up even worse off and they were a generation ago but America is still a land of opportunity isn't it a place where anyone can make it to the top if they're willing to work hard and set their sights on that's what makes this country great isn't that what you tell ourselves but in today's America what are the chances that someone who starts their life in the dish pop happen when I'm living in this part let's imagine that you're invited to a game of Monopoly you arrive at this game to find out that all of the properties been divided up all of the money's already been handed out but you're told hey go ahead and sit down play the game we're gonna give you a chance to play just like everyone else there some in society that have a lot of access a lot of social mobility a lot of resources to do the things that they want as opposed to other people who are more disadvantaged more underprivileged don't have the same levels of resources Paul pif who's a social psychologist at the University of California Berkeley who studies the psychology of wealth and the consequences of inequality in our society we came upon an experiment he conducted and caught our interest monopoly first became a hit during the Great Depression it's a game of ruthless dog-eat-dog capitalism true to the American Dream everyone has an equal opportunity starting the same amount of money and the same chance to succeed winning is a mix of luck and skill for his experiment pif rigged the game by giving one player a huge advantage so there are two players they don't know each other you flip a coin to determine your position so it's random almost like your emergence into the world as random whether you land in this family or this other family if you were the rich person you got a lot more money you got two times as much money when you pass go you collect $200 you would get to roll both dice so you're allowed to move around the board quicker now if you're on the low end we really hit you hard you got half the money when you passed ago you collected half the salary you only got to roll one die so you're moving around the board very very slowly if the other person is just whizzing around you collecting $200 every couple of turns even in a game that's openly rigged the rich players inevitably exhibit a sense of entitlement they gobble up more of the carefully placed pretzels they come to believe that they deserve to win and they show no concern for the misfortune of the poor players even though the poor players don't stand the slightest chance of winning the idea of the American Dream is that everyone's got an equal opportunity you just got to decide to play but in fact there are large groups of people that experience the game as unfair the opportunities not there all the rules have been decided the property has already been bought up and the money's already in the hands of the other players almost all families start out with wanting the same things for their children they want them to be safe they want them to be happy and they went to them to be successful and healthy but even before birth so many kids start that race behind they come into a neighborhood that's unsafe maybe they're in an overcrowded apartment they don't have healthy nutrition they might have medical issues that aren't being addressed I would say their number one challenge is just a lack of opportunities in general in parts of the South Bronx unemployment has reached nineteen percent the many families struggled just to put food on the table pastor Colin Dunkley and his wife April run a food pantry in the South Bronx it feeds about 200 struggling families every week I like helping people I like serving the people I like having the album to people if there's something we can do to bless them bags of rice sometime we get the little sippy cup recent juices we'll put those in a bag through the cave if they don't have nearly enough when they ran out of food no sorry no more it is very very hard to pull yourself out of extreme poverty in the United States it almost never happens this runs completely counter to what people's notion of America has been for a very long time we think of ourselves as the land of opportunity mobility in the United States lags most other advanced industrial democracies when I was growing up the the image of America and the self image was of a vast middle-class country of course there was a small rich group and there were some poor but America prided itself and understood that its health was because of a vast middle class we're not that kind of society anymore there's always been a gap between the wealthiest in our society and everyone else but in the last 30 years something changed that gap became the Grand Canyon the incomes of people at the lower end stagnated an disproportionate amount of the the growth and the economy has accrued to those at the upper end this is what America's economic pie looked like in the decades after World War two income gains were shared by everyone with big portions going to average Americans but since the late 1970s the bottom 90% have seen their share of the pie completely devoured by the top one percent the wealthier getting an enormous percentage of all of the the gains in the entire economy when I talk about the wealthy I'm talking about like in the thousands of people thousands might be overstating it as of 2010 only 400 of the richest Americans controlled more wealth than the bottom half of American households that's a hundred and fifty million people the question is what are the people at the top gonna do with all that money there is a little tiny group and it's probably 1% of the 1% those people are concentrated in a very small number of places New York has been one of those places since the early 19th century it has been with the world city with world class fortunes and it has been a magnet for people who live in the 1% of the 1% that was in taxi going down Fifth Avenue looking for the richest apartment building in New York there were about 10 buildings that were on the initial list 7:40 Park can the epicenter of the people who ruled the world truly the Masters of the Universe they all live from 740 Park it was known before my book as the Rockefeller building but in fact Rockefeller was not one of the original people in the building it was built by Jackie Kennedy's grandfather james tealy in a consortium with a group of the people who were considered to be responsible for the market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed and then it became kind of the Standard Oil Building it was a building where lots of Standard Oil executives and their friends all lived it was truly considered the holy grail for a certain kind of wealthy New Yorker now the largest category in 740 Park are hedge fund guys and they're the people with the most money now they're the equivalent of the oil people from the 30s these guys ruled the world you know they are multi billionaires of you know the CEOs of the major corporations in the world this dorm had once worked at 740 Park he agreed to be interviewed under the condition that we hide his face and alter his voice to work at 7:40 you really need to know somebody within the business you know you're working at the top building in the world it's only 31 units it's not a lot of residents but they're high tempered and you know you have to have a thick skin to work there you're gonna be dealing with detestable people and you're gonna be dealing with billionaires you need to know everything about the residents what time they wake up to get into Wall Street whose cars which who likes to get their own door who gets in the passenger seat who gets in the backseat you know these things don't seem like a big thing to be in you but even a minor mishap you know you'll be fired straight away some of the key tenants in the building now you've got John Thain the CEO who presided over the downfall of Merrill Lynch Ezra Merkin who was the feeder to Bernie Madoff David Koch who is the richest person in the building and of course Steve Schwarzman the poster child of capitalistic greed in the last 10 years billionaire Stephen Schwarzman one of the kings of private equity lives in 740 parks most extravagant apartment Schwartzman was a managing director at Lehman Brothers before co-founding the Blackstone Group he is one of the most prominent CEOs when it comes to lobbying for tax policies it favored the ultra-rich he was a new as a strange guy mr. Schwartzman thank you for the opportunity to address the 66th annual Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation dinner we call it occupy Waldorf you seem to be out of the public eye but then these little spurts where he'd have a 60th birthday party he had Rod Stewart play and it was all over the papers and he had a replica of his apartment built in this hotel and it was just completely ridiculous he'd have his annual Christmas party and he'd have 25 Christmas trees come in these massive Christmas trees yeah I mean every room would get a Christmas tree and be fully decorated Steve Schwarzman lives in the apartment that had previously been owned by john d rockefeller jr. but it's a sprawling apartment it's 37 rooms lavish beyond your wildest imagining you know 20,000 square feet Schwartzman paid just under 30 million dollars for this apartment pocket change for a Wall Street tycoon worth over 5 billion if a few people you know do really well why is that such a big deal isn't that just proof with the American Dream you work hard and you're successful we as a society have very complex views about economic inequality Americans are not of the view that all inequalities of wealth or income are unjust and in fact they think if you work harder if you seize opportunities then you should be able to get ahead Jacob hacker is a political scientist at Yale and the co-author of winner-take-all politics which argues that this extraordinary accumulation of wealth at the top isn't just about hard work it's about wealthy interests using the political system to rig the rules in their favor there's been a reinforcing a cycle those at the top have done well they've invested in policies that are favorable to them and they've done even better and then they've turned a lot of that money back into politics to understand how big money greets the rules in Washington we sought out poster child's with a little eruption former lobbyist Jack Abramoff having pled guilty to charges including conspiracy to bribe public officials Abramoff spent nearly four years in federal prison now released he's touring the country trying to promote them soon I wish I could tell you that in the midst of all of my lobbying activity I came to an epiphany but I didn't it unfortunately for me required my demise Jack Abramoff has pled guilty to federal corruption charges but eventually I decided to look honestly at the past activities I have engaged in I also systemically looked at the overall picture and realized the system itself was really badly in disrepair the lobbyists will bring in the exact draft of what they want because they want to make sure it is exactly what they need and you know the staff are busy the congressman busy and so they frequently in the past and still avail themselves of the services let's go of the lobbyists to to write these bills now as a lobbyist what was your leverage in terms of getting members to sponsor the bills that you would written well lobbyist needs to get to the decision-maker the congressman of the staff and that involves unfortunately financial conveyances one of this is one of the dirty little secrets in Washington today is how much time members of the House and Senate spend every week not just in the election season but all the time year-round on the telephone asking people for money it's begging for money it's a sad spectacle when you have campaigns that are costing tens of millions of dollars the people who have the money want something back money is being used to buy results that is the problem that's how I use money I know what I was doing Washington is almost owned and operated by the US corporate sector at this point there are so many billions of dollars of spending on lobbying there are so many Lobby that are in the room writing the regs writing the laws right now there is so much financing of political campaigns there are so many bought politicians our civics books tell us that the president is the most powerful person in the world and it's special interest must go to Washington to petition the government then when it comes time to raise money our presidents go happen here to the people who really have the power in 2007 President George W Bush made a pilgrimage to Steve Schwartzman's apartment to ask for money for the Republican National Committee the Secret Service were coming for I would say three to four months before the actual visit and they would come every week just to check up look around the building they did background checks on us for sure they had the sharpshooters out they brought mr. Bush to mister Schwartzman's apartment he spent maybe 15 minutes out and that's it why did John Dillinger rob banks that's where the money is well 740 park is where the money is and in this day and age and he candidate who didn't go to 740 park would probably be foolish I'm Mitt Romney I believe in America and I'm running for president he has a private meeting with Park Avenue with the prominent CEOs eager for change in Washington Mitt Romney went to kiss mr. Schwartzman's ring and meet some of his friends and no doubt collect a few checks what makes him good for the country mitt he's a natural leader and he's accessible he listens to what you say what are you telling him we had a nice meeting about three weeks ago for an hour and what I tell them stays with me I'm not shy they can influence the writing of laws the implementation of regulation the degree to which the tax code tilts towards business and those are the top verses ordinary working Americans a perfect example of the influence that a small group of billionaires can have in the government is something of the tax code called the carried interest provision it allows hedge fund and private equity managers like Steve Schwarzman to pay a 15 percent tax rate on their income even though unlike normal capital gains they're not required to risk their own money when it's explained to people they think it's crazy the most highly paid financial executives get taxed at a rate lower than your mom-and-pop grocery it is in the tax code because of the incredibly effective lobbying of the financial industry okay it was a question about carried interest being taxed at a lower rate we sort of look at this as a as sort of a an issue that's now in the political world and you know it will be solved in that world we don't we don't have much of a say in that Schwartzman went to Capitol Hill yesterday in stood outside the Senate chamber law being senators Schwartzman was there to fight against higher taxes on so-called carried interest from 2006 on every Democratic leader and president in the case of President Obama has said we're gonna get rid of this let's ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes that are lower on their rates than their secretaries and then magically it manages to survive before you know it the congressional session has ended and oh my god we ran out of time we didn't get to it we'll do it next time it appears the Democrats have completed their takeover of Capitol Hill even when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress they couldn't close the carried interest loophole the question is why it passed the house twice but in the Senate hedge funds had a pal in Charles Schumer of New York the senator from wall street as he was done for many years Charles Schumer is one of the most powerful senators in the country and has raised more campaign money from the financial industry than any other Democrat currently serving in Congress Schumer became famous for his ability to gain Wall Street dollars that's why he was elevated within the Democratic leadership is because he was such an effective fund raiser Schumer in that period was the chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee which you gotta give the guy credit he turned this into an absolute money machine Schumer helped the Democratic Party raise record amounts from Wall Street and in June 2007 as the Senate was considering legislation to close the carried interest loophole sure went on a fundraising frenzy in that one month he raised more than 1 million dollars from hedge funds and private equity firms like Blackstone the carried interest bill never saw the light of day Schumer just buried the idea it never came up for a vote in a committee or on the floor of the Senate it just disappeared and and that I think is a perfect example of the way in which money talks in American politics today and nobody's money talks louder and David Koch's this right-wing oil tycoon with a fortune of twenty five billion dollars is the richest resident 740 Park Avenue David and his brother Charles run Koch Industries one of the largest privately owned companies in the world they make things like Dixie Cups brawny paper towels lycra and Stainmaster carpet but their most profitable business is oil and gas which helps koch industries bring in over a hundred billion dollars in annual revenues together the Koch brothers may have spent more money to influence American politics than anyone else in the country they basically are unprecedented they influence American politics on a completely different dimension than anybody else the minute you walked in the joint I could see you are a man distinction a real spending millions of dollars Republican politicians more than fifty million dollars for example to lobby in Washington since 2006 good-looking so if I say where would you like to know what as much as 200 million dollars of their own money this year to help defeat President Obama in 1980 David Koch actually ran for Vice President on the libertarian ticket they count on growing sympathy for their party's single goal freedom from government he did abysmally the libertarian ticket got 1% of the vote in America in 1980 what they learned from that is they had to figure out another way to get their ideas to become influential so the cokes decided to use their money to advance their agenda they gave generously to political candidates but more importantly they invested heavily in groups that could bring their anti-government ideas into the mainstream the brothers gave millions to right-wing think tanks and Charles even founded the libertarian Cato Institute governments too big and is getting bigger and we don't want to encourage bigger government take the keys to the liquor cabinet away from the alcoholics the cokes also wrote out enormous checks to universities to support programs that would promote deregulation and free-market economics their free-market ideology they argue is just about principle but there are many many areas in which their business interests but in to regulations environmental regulations have been especially bad for the cokes bottom line and they've been slapped with numerous vines from the Environmental Protection Agency we are talking about millions of gallons of crude oil being released into the environment in 2000 Koch Industries had to pay a 30 million dollar fine for its role in over 300 oil at the time it was the largest civil penalty in the EPA's history when you make businesses less competitive because they're having to deal with regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and other unelected bureaucracies instead of creating jobs instead of being able to compete with our foreign competitors we know it kills jobs this is Tim Capps ahead of the Koch brothers latest venture Americans for Prosperity we're genuinely fighting to preserve and expand economic freedom which we believe is the best way to to give folks from every walk of life prosperity and a shot at a better life through Americans for Prosperity the cokes have provided tremendous financial backing to the Tea Party by organizing rallies and protests flooding the airwaves with advertising wasteful spending must stop go to spending crisis org to make your voice heard people were looking at the Tea Party movement as this sort of spontaneous combustion this grassroots thing that just exploded and and what it really was was something that was being fed by libertarian billionaires we want the maximum freedom to launch businesses create opportunity and expand prosperity we desire a tax code that does not punish hard work or crush the entrepreneurial spirit that makes America unique in the world they have this ideology of the free market and how it's it making money equals freedom and if you listen to the Tea Party rhetoric you hear exactly the same phrases other side to the side you're on today is the side frankly of freedom they're chanting liberty and chanting no more attacking freedom liberty and people waking up to the fact that this is our country and it's up to us to take it back our rights are being taken away little by little but what kind of freedom is Americans for Prosperity talking about is it freedom for everyone or just for billionaires want freedom from taxes the freedom to pollute and freedom from any responsibility to the rest of society to answer that question just go to one of their rallies where you're likely to see signs promoting the once discredited philosopher and novelist whose recently found a new audience here in the United States perhaps the most challenging and unusual new philosophy has been forged by a novelist I'm read this rands point of view is still comparatively unknown in America but if it ever did take hold it would revolutionize our lives I'm opposed to all forms of control I am what an absolute let's say fair free unregulated economy and Rand wrote a series of novels that have become a kind of touchstone for contemporary Republican politicians most notably Atlas Shrugged there's Atlas he holds the world on his shoulders what if Atlas Shrugged pictured this an anti utopias society that collapses under government controls the sound familiar it should it's in rands story of Atlas Shrugged and now it's a movie one very popular with Tea Party members Atlas Shrugged is about in America where businesses are regulated the rich pay taxes and the government tries to help the middle class and the poor in other words a doomsday scenario in Branzburg anyone who needs a little help in life is a moocher when a parasite and anyone who wants to help others is a villain i / heroes are proud to be as selfish as possible you really don't care about helping the underprivileged ooh you know Philip I done finally the CEOs of America gets sick and tired of living under a government - no longer caters to them and they decide to go on strike what are you selling hell nothing I'm simply offering a society that cultivates individual achievement they head off into the mountains and start a new society one where there is no government Atlas Shrugged is told as a horror story the nightmarish vision of what would happen to our country like wealthy Americans that David Koch and Steve Schwarzman just left us to fend for ourselves yeah we supported we had screenings around the country and we liked that story to be out there and we liked the the ideas to be out there and we certainly believe and share many of the principles of values that book was based on the inherent morality of capitalism you do not like the altruism by which we live let's see that I don't like it's too weak and work I consider evil the appeal of Ayn Rand is that you know it's it's basically the Gordon Gekko message greed is good that ideology is appealing I suppose if you have a tremendous amount of money you might feel guilty otherwise how does your philosophy translate itself into the world of politics we believe that America deserves a choice of two futures we believe all riders seems more money from the Koch brothers than any other member of Congress he is also the country's most powerful politician to publicly embrace the philosophy of eine Rand by running on his anti-government views this Republican from Wisconsin became a party favor a powerful member of Congress and a candidate for high office join me in welcoming the next president of the United States Paul Ryan vice president United States we will restore the greatness of this country it is our duty to save the American dream for our children what kind of people do we want to be with his rise to prominence Ryan has denied his affection for going Rand but history tells a different story I just want to speak to you a little bit about Iran and what she meant to me in my life and the fight were engaged here in Congress the reason I got involved in public service by and large if I had to credit one thinker one person it would be Iran you believe that there should be no right by the government to tax you believe that there should be no such thing as welfare legislation unemployment compensation it inspired me so much that I reach required waiting in my office for all my interns of my staff we start with Atlas Shrugged how do we build road sanitation facilities hospitals school I may have in private roads private post offices private schools it's so important that we go back to our roots to look at Iran's vision her writings to see what our girding undergrounding principles are we have to go back to Iran our plan takes power away from Washington and gives it back to the individual while in Congress Ryan put Iran's philosophy into practice through a plan he called the path to prosperity it was a budget proposal that would dramatically cut government programs for the poor while handing out an even bigger tax cut for the rich I think that the path to prosperity that chairman Ryan and his committee have put together is a blueprint for America's future the path to prosperity passed the House of Representatives in March of 2012 it now appears to be at the heart of the economic philosophy of the Republican Party Mitt Romney and I will take the right steps in the right time to get us back on the right track what do you think of Ryan's budget framework oh I think it's ridiculous on the face of it he's proposing a ten trillion dollar tax cut as part of his deficit-reduction plan and obviously if you're going to cut taxes by 10 trillion dollars you've got to cut spending by even more than 10 trillion dollars every program you can possibly think of from roads to education to energy would would be more or less abolished if you're going to take seriously the numbers he has put forward the idea that there's legitimate economics behind this is absurd conservatives throughout the ages have never spoken like Paul Ryan Milton Friedman talked about negative income tax and guaranteed incomes for the poor Friedrich Hayek who was one of the Acme's of free-market economics talked about the need of societies to guarantee minimum standards and provide health care so so there's clearly an ideology involved here they actually want to use a tax policy to eviscerate government programs if we try to go down the path where we put the government in the place to equalize the results of people's lies where we try to equalize outcomes we'll all be more equally miserable rather let's focus on equality of opportunity my mom used to say to me son it don't matter where you begin what matters is where you end you live in the United States of America and that's something that I think is a inherently moral thing about America it gives you a chance to make it much of what they say is about providing opportunity to make money to everybody equally that's that's what they would argue about and it doesn't seem to accept the possibility that if you're poor enough and your schooling is bad enough that you don't really have an opportunity to compete almost everyone agrees that education is the key to upward mobility for people starting at the bottom of the ladder a college degree can quadruple their chances of making it to the top but college is increasingly out of reach the cost has gone up over 500% since 1980 meanwhile without a college degree as part of the effort to get a job if you only have a high school diploma there's a 7 in 10 chance that you don't have full-time work at all it's a cruel irony that the US economy has a desperate need for skilled labor in manufacturing high-tech and health industries but there aren't enough qualified workers to fill those jobs even with 12 million Americans unable to find work training and education programs are being slashed by both parties in favor of tax cuts for the rich I find it hard to be an optimist right now for people whom I care about and people with the poverty Institute cares about people who want to support their families to work in can't today one in seven Americans receives food stamps more than half of those people are children 41% of the seconds they've been working Hassan's job is no longer enough to keep Americans out of poverty so there's people that think ok they don't mean anything they don't need a handout they should just go get a job yes as soon as they create jobs for people to get them then great I'm pretty sure they'll be there there's nothing so what are you doing there's nothing that's where the safety net comes in yet Paul Ryan's budget proposal would cut the food stamp program by 134 billion dollars over the next 10 years which could shred the safety net for 8 million people great I have a question why did you choose to model your budget off the extreme ideology and appreciate I've got some in April 2012 the US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Congress to protect food stamps Bishop suggested that if spending cuts were necessary they should be made to government subsidies for rich agricultural companies instead of taking food from hungry children poor families and vulnerable seniors our nation is approaching a tipping point we're at a moment where if government's growth is left unchecked and unchallenged America's best century will be considered our past century this is a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock you can hear Paul Ryan talk about his hammock this hammock the average benefit in Wisconsin was two hundred and forty six dollars a month last year for two people about 350 for four is that enough for you to say I put my feet up in the hammock I got you know I got these food stamps feeding people is something that this country can afford to do and should be able to do that's not a helmet and if you try to raise our taxes and trample on our liberties we're either going to beat you or make your life miserable the government has been starved of funds were at about the lowest tax collection as a share of national income in our modern history we can't even pay for the most basic public services right now we can't keep our schools functioning we can't keep our roads intact taxes are the price you pay for civilization and if you don't pay taxes you don't get civilization it's as simple as that by that measure our civilization is in trouble General Electric made five billion dollars in US profits last year but claimed a three point three billion dollar tax credit these days some of the nation's most profitable companies are paying little or no taxes at all thanks to tax breaks loopholes and clever accounting the tax rate corporations actually pay is at an all-time low the same thing is true for personal income taxes especially for the ultra-rich tax rates for millionaires have dropped more than 25 percent in the last two decades and for a handful of extremely wealthy individuals at the top taxes have fallen by almost 50 percent a big part of that view is because of the tax cuts signed into law for president george w bush bush slashed the capital gains rate on investments to fifteen percent nearly half what the rate was under Ronald Reagan the Republicans made all these arguments back in 2003 that if we cut taxes on dividends and capital gains and reduce the top tax rate on the wealthy we'll get this explosion of investment and growth and jobs you can look up the data for yourself but I certainly don't remember any big increase in growth after 2003 there was essentially no economic impact at all except that it really increased the deficit the Bush tax cuts have added over 2.9 trillion dollars to the national debt Paul Ryan's proposed tax cuts would add another four point six trillion dollars in debt over the next ten years what's hard to understand about this relentless push to cut taxes for the rich is that they already have so much more than the rest of us in 1965 ceo's made about 20 times as much as the average worker today by the most conservative estimate that number is 231 so what's going on here are CEOs getting paid more because they deserve it meet another resident of 740 Park John Thain the highest-paid CEO in 2007 fans apartment is actually my personal favorite for if I could live at 740 park it's a little tiny jewel box duplex Thane had been a senior executive at Goldman Sachs and served as CEO of the New York Stock Exchange before becoming the head of the investment bank Merrill Lynch in 2008 as losses were soaring his company stock is plummeting fame was busy with a 1.2 million dollar office renovation you spent more than a million dollars renovating your office is this true it was my office it was two conference rooms and it was a reception area but it is clear to me in today's world that it was a mistake I apologize for spending that money on those those things well Thane was busy picking chairs rugs and waste baskets merrill and the other investment banks helped bring down the global economy Wall Street has been turned upside down the collapse of one investment bank the takeover of another 29 billion to help JPMorgan a five billion dollars to bail out the insurance giant AIG in street was rescued by US taxpayers not only through bailouts but also through government loans that carried virtually no interest I'm confident that this rescue plan along with other measures taken by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve will begin to restore strength and stability to America's financial system and overall economy meanwhile under Presidents Bush and Obama millions of middle-class American homeowners facing foreclosure received only a tiny fraction of the bailouts given to wealthy in the end Merrill Lynch suffered over 27 billion dollars in losses under Thane's leadership who was sold to Bank of America but that didn't stop them from handing out three point six billion dollars in performance bonuses to Merrill executives the bonuses were paid even as Merrill suffered 15 billion dollars in losses if you live in a world where everyone you know is chasing huge sums of money every day and their morality is determined by what it's necessary to do to get richer and richer and richer you're not going to have the same moral constructs affecting your behavior when I started at 740 I was like this is great you know come around to Christmas time I'm gonna get a thousand from each resident you know because they are multi billionaires but it's it's not that way you know these guys are businessmen they know what the going rate is they're not gonna give you anything more than that the cheapest person overall was David Koch we would load up his trucks two vans usually every weekend for the Hamptons you know I mean multiple trips multiple guys in and out in and out heavy bags we would never get a tip for mr. Koch we would never get a smile for mr. Koch $50 check for Christmas a check to yeah I mean at least you could give us cash just because you're rich doesn't make you smart just because you're rich doesn't make you culture just because you're rich doesn't make you refined being rich means you're rich some rich people are just dicks Stephen Schwarzman only should disgust in comparison over the administration's effort to increase taxes he said quote it's a war it's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 in thousands of different people that we've studied across the country the more you have the more entitled and deserving of those things you feel and that might account in part for the vitriol that you see when people feel like they're privileged position is being undermined by since when in this country was it okay to demonize success the free enterprise system is under attack back to the old populist demonized the rich you know the Republicans are always complaining about the Democrats playing class warfare the Democratic Party is gonna have to stop bashing the rich but they do it themselves by for example they're always quick to point out that something like half of all people who file individual income tax returns have either a zero or a negative tax liability we have a system today in the United States where forty five percent of Americans don't pay any income tax you have to have skin in the game over forty five percent of the people in this country don't pay income taxes at all and we have to question whether that's fair those are people who don't pay income taxes okay it includes all elderly women living alone we just have enough Social Security they don't even declare includes disabled people who don't have earnings but all those people pay payroll taxes sales taxes property taxes state and local taxes gasoline taxes liquor taxes this is ridiculous to say low income people don't pay taxes they do pay taxes and they pay a lot of them they've managed to take the resentment of the middle class which has actually been quite economically squeezed over the last couple decades and turn their resentment against the people beneath them I think we're reaching a tipping point we're coming close to a tipping point in America where we might have a net majority of takers versus makers in society it's really you know like a magician you know trying to point people in a different direction so if they won't notice what's really going on if you can take the resentment of the middle class and point it downward rather than having it point upward to the people on the top of the 1% who are really you know walking away richer than ever then you can succeed politically and I think they've been very good at that you know the the the poor are not very well represented in our system of government I'm afraid well I think one reason a I think has a lot to do with the decline of the unions throughout the 30s and 40s and 50s the unions were the vanguard in pushing for social legislation that would help the lower classes in general unions are perhaps the only organizations with significant financial and political clout to actually represent the working class since the late 70s corporate interests have been extremely successful and limiting the power of unions only public sector unions have shown signs of growth and the Koch brothers have put their financial muscle behind an effort to destroy them Wisconsin is ground zero I think it's going to determine largely whether or not the pampered nature of these public employee unions is finally reined in if you like David Koch and Charles Koch want to take over American politics you're gonna want to knock out whatever the organized forces are on the other side the third 2011 Scott Walker became Governor of Wisconsin he had received significant financial support from the Koch brothers the national conservative movement wanted a petri dish and we were that and he was more than willing to do what they wanted and not the people of Wisconsin good morning Walker quickly introduced a bill to balance the state's budget but it disguised a much broader agenda the governing community said look you know you guys got a great deal on your pension you don't pay anything for your pension and it's a good pension so you should pay 5% half of what the overall contribution is which is about 5.8 percent okay compared to other places that I see okay he said you should pay more for health care we're asking for a health care premium contribution of just about 12 and a half percent the other good deal health care okay now we remove health care and pension contributions from collective bargaining they said wait a minute now we don't want any more collective bargaining we don't whoa wait a minute stop you can't do that Walker's legislation was a surprise attack on the political power of public sector unions and their ability to negotiate on B workers take away collective bargaining and what what does the person that's making let's say seven to nine dollars an hour at Universe was constant hospital serving lunch what voice will they have in the workplace within days the largest foods announced that they were willing to make sacrifices that would help save the state money but they wouldn't give up their collective bargaining rights the unions and the Democrats have said they're willing to take the concessions on wage and health benefits they're willing to take about an 8% pay cut but they simply don't want you to take away their collective bargaining rights but what we're asking for realistically is something that nearly every other person in this state and every other person across this country is paying a whole lot more for when it comes to retirement he said they're ready governor they already said they're willing to give up the on the pensions but that's our health care they already said that they've already recessions that what but you can say anything in the midst of the debate then we really knew it was not about fixing a budget at all it was about breaking unions and breaking the the political power that unions have governor Walker's agenda is a national agenda I mean it's it's seated and it's well funded by the Koch brothers Wisconsin came about pro-union protesters occupied the Statehouse for more than two weeks they gathered over a million signatures to force a recall election to get Wolcott removed the Union spent millions fighting for their survival their wealthy interests outside the state spent far more the biggest single source of money was Americans for Prosperity which has spent over ten million dollars to support Scott Walker today we have more activists in our Wisconsin AFP chapter than there are members of the Wisconsin Teachers Union we have a very strong vibrant operation there Walker has painted teachers and other public union employees as the haves and the private sector as the have-nots what they're trying to do is really squash you so that they can have that much more power and you can have that much less voice it's teachers whose pay has been reduced against the Koch brothers it's not a really fair fight hiya Scott Walker Scott David Koch already David I'm good yourself I'm very well little disheartened by the situation there but what's the latest we'll announce Thursday it will probably get five to six thousand state workers will get a tryst notices from layoffs beautiful beautiful gotta crush that Union and just kind of pass the message on to these guys if they think I'm Kevin they've been asleep for the last eight years because we don't budge goddamn right but what we were thinking about the crowds was with planting some troublemakers you know the we thought about that I only got reaction to that would be let them protest all they want sooner or later the media stops finding of interesting the next question I talked to Kasich every day you know John's got to stand firm in Ohio I think we do the same thing with Rick Scott for that I think Snyder if you got a little more support probably could do at Michigan we start going down the list there's a lot of us new governors you got elected to do something big you're the first domino yep this is our moment this is our time to change the course of history in places like Wisconsin the doors of opportunity for those in the lower rungs of society are closing quickly we are in very real danger that the American Dream is slipping from the grass of the next generation this charity event is a moment for wealthy New Yorkers give some of their fortunes to the pool over the last decade Stephen Schwarzman is given over 7 million dollars to New York's inner cities scholarship fund I worry that the social fabric of America is being ripped purposely by people who are taking advantage of individuals who are suffering mr. Schwartzman appears to be sympathetic to those who are living in poverty but oddly for one of America's greatest capitalists who doesn't seem to understand that unlike monopoly real capitalism is a game that's played for keeps for every big winner there are lots of losers wealth is greedy but so is poverty without popular democracy all the gains of our economy will go to the top I'm from Michigan this is where our money is people lost their homes in the banking and mortgage crisis and if it went here if nothing what would being rich God wants all his children should be rich but don't be rich and at a place where you ain't thinking about anybody else they feel they need not ten billion dollars but twenty billion dollars of wealth they get that extra wealth by twisting politics buying politicians America became a place where money buys everything the rich are often held up as shining examples of what's possible in America proof anyone connected but is there still a bridge to economic opportunity in our country when we look at the river that separates the two Park Avenues do we see a channel to prosperity for everyone or a barrier that prevents the Puna from crossing as long as our political leaders depend on the rich to win elections in the state in office they will write laws to protect the castle's of wealth and power on the other side of this river a river that has become a deep and forbidding moat you

Channel: THE WHY

Views: 2,458,957

Keywords: Whypoverty?, poverty, documentaries, globalisation, inequality, the system, Corporation, power, american dream, lobby, Koch, Schwarzman, Millionairs March, park avenue, Americans for Prosperity, Paul Ryan, Alex Gibney, Blair Foster, Jigsaw Productions, the why foundation, the why documentary, 740 park avenue

Id: 6niWzomA_So

Length: 58min 52sec (3532 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 05 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

We know

[u/reallymeans]

It’s much easier to make money with money.

[u/stonecoldjelly]

Did he come up with something that seems both massively depressing and completely unstoppable?

[u/rpillai5]

Yup and it will keep getting worse both in the U.S. everywhere else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States. We're pretty fucked, also the best part is the percent of the country whose wage increases are being outstripped by Cost of Living is rising, meaning that many Americans are effectively poorer every year.

[u/fartsinscubasuit]

Fuck me for wanting a raise.

Why am I tagged as top contributor? I don't think I've ever commented in this sub before.

[u/slowandsteadylearner]

Gibney is the executive producer of the new Netflix series "Dirty Money", which examines different corporate scandals in each episode. Quite fantastic.

[u/Loadsock96]

To paraphrase Michael Parenti, there is only one thing ruling classes throughout history have wanted: everything. They want it all.

[u/bearstorm]

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."

• Albert Einstein

https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/

[u/iconoclast63]

It always has been a staggering wealth gap that has lead to the fall of every empire in history. For those who don't realize that America is, in fact, an empire, glance at a map of our global military footprint. Take a somber look at the amount of the world we dominate economically. We are perhaps the largest empire in the history of the world, we've just built it through corporations and debt rather than putting our flag everywhere. And this film should warn all Americans, the fat lady will soon start singing on this empire.