From what I gather this will be only relevant and therefore interesting to USA citizens. I do enjoy me a good government bashing movie, so I ask you this: Do the points raised by the movie apply to most governments in general or does it cater only to american problems? Also, is this as intelligent as I expect it to be? I mean something interesting mentioned, not the general "well, there's corruption" or "well, some people are greedy" statements?
shareDoes it apply to all governments? the general notion most definitely does. However the sitaution is not so bad in the rest of the developed world simply because their govenrment has managed to put in place much more cushion effects, such as healthcare and social security, which has allowed vertical mobility and thus much richer middle class.
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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.
@www-bfn I do enjoy me a good government bashing movie...
Then you won't enjoy this. Reich talks about how government sets the rules of the market, and those rules can determine who benefits. Here's a screenshot from the documentary that shows some of those rules:
http://i.imgur.com/YH6kKId.jpg
BFN, the film is very U.S.-focused but I imagine you'll recognize a lot of the same things that happened in Britain during the "credit crunch" I believe you called it.
shareIt's relevant mostly to Americans, but it's not entirely irrelevant to foreigners, because of globalization.
shareThe American government has a history of polluting the rest of the world with its economic policies. So I would say yes, this is relevant to non americans.
The guy makes good points but he glosses over America leaving the gold standard in the 70s, the general effect of fiat currency on an economy and the affect of interest and an out of control financial system. The real reality is much more bleak that the one the documentary portrays.
The documentary does have a little bit of Michael Moore syndrome. Ie: It has to have a positive spin. It seems a lot of Americans don't even want to engage in any conversation that doesn't have a happy ending.