In this timely piece by Rich Cohen on Salon.com, '"It's a Wonderful Life": The most terrifying movie ever,' we are given an appropriate dose of reality this holiday season.His subtitle hits the mark hard by saying, "Underneath the warm fuzzies, Frank Capra's holiday classic is a tale of hunger, greed and a troubled America."
It may be a bit hyperbolic to claim that "It's a Wonderful Life", one of my favorite movies of all time, is 'The most terrifying movie ever.' But it is by no means an exaggeration to say that the main story line in the movie - sans the Angel coming down from heaven - is a very stark "Grapes of Wrath" analysis of what's wrong with the American economic system. At its heart, the story is about a man who had some obstacles in his life, and despite doing an enviable job to raise a family and run a business on a modest income, saw fate step in to toss his "just getting by" success story into an all to common story of crisis, failure, and maddening powerlessness.
In the movie, George Bailey entrusts his weekly deposit to an absent minded employee (his uncle). Without any malice, the uncle misplaces the deposit. So on one level, George, through an amazingly harsh twist of fate (like a Tsunami, Hurricane, Tornado, or lets say a crash to the economic system) was now not only in severe debt, but at risk of going to jail and losing his family and his freedom.
And now we bring ourselves into the present to reflect on just HOW MANY people in this country find themselves in predicaments just like this - predicaments NOT OF THEIR OWN DOING. We throw around words these days like responsibility and phrases like "the jobs are there if people want them" - without ANY conception of what we are talking about. There but for the grace of god folks. Anyone who is judging others in this economy; anyone who claims they KNOW how many months of unemployment insurance is TOO much, well they can just go to hell. It's infuriating and revealing of how little people with money know about the world of people without much.
I'd like to think that when the Democrats took the House and Senate and Presidency in 2008 it was because of how many people voted who do have a clue about such things. I'd also like to think that the reason Democrats lost the House this time around is because most of the people who voted were people who have no clue about "how the other half lives." (Although Jacob Riis would probably have to change the title of his book today to how the other 3/4 live)
As we head back to the movie, we can also look at the Mr. Potter character in the story who had money from the start, and made even more in the "alternative reality" where George Bailey wasn't looking out for the poor and middling income folks giving them a "fair" deal on land and a future. According to the story, one could say, runaway capitalism gave people less and asked for more. A more fair capitalism, one where squeezing the most money out of an opportunity was not the goal, gave more people more, and yes got less profit for the "Savings and Loan" business that George ran.
The is an additional irony of course, in that had George Bailey gouged his tenants and gave them less for their money as Mr. Potter would have, the story would have been completely different. George's uncle would have misplaced the deposit, but George would have had PLENTY of money in the bank to cover it. So when people say to me that concepts like "fairness" are socialist or anti-capitalist and that "redistribution" of wealth is what you call a progressive tax system, I say HELL YEAH. If we know that on a daily basis we cannot entrust business to look out for the consumer as much as he does for the investor, we know there is a system in place that continually - and perpetually - rewards those who have money with more money. DO PEOPLE NOT GET THAT THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY IS ONLY ONE STEP REMOVED FROM BEING VEGAS IN MACROCOSM? The system is rigged and the HOUSE ALWAYS WINS!
Think about it. In this latest crisis (yes we're now back in the real world) it was the pure greed of those who knew the housing bubble was about to burst that sent our economy reeling. Lets be clear, it was NOT the natural downturn in the housing market that caused this. It was the accelerated selling of mortgages by those who KNEW the window was closing on the golden goose that caused this crash. For those who want to accuse the government and blame those who could not afford the mortgages for this crisis - tell them to go to hell too. When everyone has a TV or computer you have to come up with a new innovation right? Well everyone that could reasonably afford houses had houses and so when the bankers who had bet a ton on this housing market began to see returns and profits slow, they ORDERED new products to be rolled out. Those new products were the riskier mortgages to those who had less collateral.
Follow me here. The bankers NEEDED the continued infusion of cash that the down payments at least would give them. Bank A provides down payment (loan to buyer) to the property owner (bank B). Bank B has all it needs and sells rights to property/mortgage to unwitting rube bank C. New owner of the mortgage is thrilled to get in on the housing boom (that it doesn't know is about to end) but guess what, once ALL of these ill advised loans start struggling to be paid back (and there were a ton) the banking system, which was heavily invested in the returns on these loans starts to fail like dominoes. And as we all know, a ton of these mid level banks failed (or were bought at a premium by larger banks) but the big guys were bailed out by the government. And you know what, they HAD to be bailed out. They had it made in the shade. Had we let them fail, we go into MEGA DEPRESSION of the ages.
Did you see the picture I just painted. Large banks not impacted as much by the crisis (the George Bailey who had been gauging his tenants all along -or Mr. Potter) were not only in a position to by smaller banks at a premium, but the really large banks put a gun to the head of the government for loans and have since made out like bandits. The system folks - its a wonderful thing.
So all those people who had a personal business and didn't lose it, and all those with a good nest egg in the bank, how dare you claim you know what the real George Baileys are going through. The real George Bailey, the one with no Angel to step in, was driven mad by the prospect of his life being boiled down to his business ledger and a system he had tried to fight against but work within his whole life. Lets be clear, it is not often that allegations of wrongdoing and extramarital affairs (yes a real part of the story) get wiped away by a party fundraiser. Maybe it would have paid the legal bills. But there is no way in hell the police come in the room, have some egg nogg - and throw the arrest warrant away (yes another part of the story.)
SO as we focus on the positives on this Christmas day, lets remember what this Christmas classic was really about. It was about the little guy getting beaten down by big business and bad luck and how that doesn't actually have to be the end of the story. But of course that was the Hollywood message that makes us want to watch the movie. The Hollywood message that should make us think and watch the movie is that WE have to BE the CHANGE we want to see on the big screen. Angels do not come down to save us, parties don't make dept and arrest warrants disappear.
No man is alone who has friends, yes. But the community of "friends" in the story is the people. If you look deeper at that meaning - and then go ahead and actually watch "The Grapes of Wrath" afterward, you will see that government, society, and a kinder gentler capitalism are all what is really needed for George Bailey to spend Christmas with his family, not in debt, not in jail, and not the villain that unrestrained capitalism clearly is at the end.
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