"This 80-minute documentary focuses on the growing "wealth gap" in America, as seen through the eyes of filmmaker Jamie Johnson, a 27-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. Johnson, who cut his film teeth at NYU and made the Emmy®-nominated 2003 HBO documentary Born Rich, here sets his sights on exploring the political, moral and emotional rationale that enables a tiny percentage of Americans - the one percent - to control nearly half the wealth of the entire United States. The film Includes interviews with Nicole Buffett, Bill Gates Sr., Adnan Khashoggi, Milton Friedman, Robert Reich, Ralph Nader and other luminaries."

Link to the documentary site - The One Percent Documentary - HBO

Link to the YouTube version

Sobering. Thanks for posting this.

Wow.

Thanks for that. Afterwards you should watch this:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390540n&tag=contentMain;contentAux

I'll have to watch that. My dad's business does the irrigation for one of the Johnson heirs here in Wisconsin. I've been at his estate several times (well, one of his estates) and there's nothing like walking around a billionaire's property all day. Sheesh. His kid's playset is bigger than my apartment.

An aspiring michael moore. Interesting propaganda piece for the socialist movement.

The Johnson Interviewer - When asked if he would donate his entire inheritance to charity, he said "That's not what we're here to talk about."
from wiki...typical.

"The Johnson Interviewer - When asked if he would donate his entire inheritance to charity, he said "That's not what we're here to talk about."
from wiki...typical."

That's a B.S. comment

The question is whether all people, even the richest, should pay their fair share of taxes.

Or is it okay for the wealthiest to pay off politicians to pass tax rules that favor them.

No jerry it is about the disparity in wealth. So asking the super rich kid who just runs around making movies and living off his family wealth if he would be willing to walk the walk and not just talk the talk is very legitimate.

And like Michael Moore they selectively edit and pick and choose to distort the truth.

They focused on the Katrina refugees in the city with not mention that many of those people willingly remained in the city despite a standing evacuation order.

They attack Buffet for getting mad at a grand daughter who bad mouthed him while barely mentioning the fact that he is giving away nearly every penny he owns.

Interesting that he was sued over the video since his subjects thought he "edited" his work to inacurately portray them.

Good points Michael.

I'm just saying it's not hypocritcal for a wealthy person to advocate fair taxes for wealthy without giving all his wealth away.

I wonder why he didn't interview George Soros? And I still think a flat tax cures all ills.

And I swore I would never read another chaff thread.

Edited by skinewmexico on 12/07/2011 09:53:47 MST.

"And I swore I would never read another chaff thread."

Ha, ha, ha,...

"And I still think a flat tax cures all ills."

That would be better than what we have now, especially if capital gains and dividends were taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. And no cap on social security tax. Social security tax on all income.

And if you exempted the first $20K (or whatever) I think this would actually be a pretty fair tax system.

@ jerry.

yep

though the sugar thing has ticked me off for a LONG time. what a waste.

"Thanks for that. Afterwards you should watch this:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390540n&tag=contentMain;contentAux"

I did watch that last night, thanks a bunch for pointing it out... and thanks to all the posters who took the time to watch. In addition, thanks to everyone for keeping it civil.

Here is the 60 minutes posted earlier, Prosecuting Wall St. (or the lack thereof) - YouTube:

Part 1

Part 2

I encourage everyone to share more sources of information, no matter the "side chosen", to help understand these fascinating times we live in. Opinions are great, but lets see the data that helps establish the spectrum of experience we are seeing today... or not.

Admittedly, being a newish Dad makes me fairly energetic about getting a scope of what is yet to come

"No jerry it is about the disparity in wealth. So asking the super rich kid who just runs around making movies and living off his family wealth if he would be willing to walk the walk and not just talk the talk is very legitimate."

I believe the quality of the film hinged on the information made only accessible to a trustafarian, like Johnson. It seems too easy to dismiss the concepts over a less than ideal use of background choices... even strawman-type easy

"And like Michael Moore they selectively edit and pick and choose to distort the truth."

That guy really upsets me, great point.

"They focused on the Katrina refugees in the city with not mention that many of those people willingly remained in the city despite a standing evacuation order."

I believe many would had left if given the resources to do so.

"They attack Buffet for getting mad at a grand daughter who bad mouthed him while barely mentioning the fact that he is giving away nearly every penny he owns."

Buffet has been suprising with some progressive measures, publically. I couldn't take too much of this segment seriously, though it was interesting seeing a private glimpse at that family.

"Interesting that he was sued over the video since his subjects thought he "edited" his work to inacurately portray them."

There was a lawsuit over Born Rich, not the film of subject - The One Percent. The cast of characters that this trustafarian rounded up was something that only a priveleged person could realize, IMO.

Relatively accessible IMO:
Nicole Buffett - she is a nanny, housekeeper, and artist.
Chuck Collins - this is his favorite subject
Friedman - always up for a good debate?
Cody Franchetti - guy is trying to get a reality tv show so wants the publicity
Nader is a politician always looking for tv time
Paul Orfalea is a self made man and now a professor, philanthropist, and author...publicity is a plus
Various other politicians...see nader
Gates Sr. subject matter is in his wheelhouse

Harder access
the finanacial guys
Forbes
Johnson's own family

not sure:
gun runner
muth
forbes


So in summary, I don't think his name had much bearing on his ability to get to these people. But in any matter, while an interesting point, it wasn't about that. I was simply saying that him advocating taking others money when he himself wasn't giving up his was hypocritical.



KATRINA

Many of those that stayed in New Orleans did so out of CHOICE not ability. They distrusted the authorities or thought they could ride it out as usual. But there were half filled FREE buses leaving the city before the storm hit.

Born Rich

You are quite correct. My bad! "I misremembered."

Overall I found the film had several points that were interesting and I am not completely in disagreement with the subject matter. I just felt the agenda ruined what could have been a good piece.

"Nicole Buffett - she is a nanny, housekeeper, and artist.
Chuck Collins - this is his favorite subject
Friedman - always up for a good debate?
Cody Franchetti - guy is trying to get a reality tv show so wants the publicity
Nader is a politician always looking for tv time
Paul Orfalea is a self made man and now a professor, philanthropist, and author...publicity is a plus
Various other politicians...see nader
Gates Sr. subject matter is in his wheelhouse"

you're missing the context, take for example the conference meant only for the extremely wealthy, or the gang that inherited their funds - this struck me as heartfelt and intimate given Johnson's own obvious situation. It had an ambience of genuine motive that I've never walked away from a Michael Moore film with. It is an undeniable point of courage to take advantage of this trustafarian's dynamic with his environment in order to present a story of this nature.

"I was simply saying that him advocating taking others money when he himself wasn't giving up his was hypocritical."

I thought this could be summed up with a comment made earlier:

"I'm just saying it's not hypocritcal for a wealthy person to advocate fair taxes for wealthy without giving all his wealth away"

Katrina

A terrible tragedy that continues to illude the most well intentioned. I hope you're not saying that this was the case across the board, that seems intellectually dishonest to not recognize mistakes on all facets of the situation. The film focused on disaster management in a bias manner, please point me in the direction of information that fairly presents all points in this debacle.

"I just felt the agenda ruined what could have been a good piece"

hmmm, and you mean a more agressive taxation rate by "agenda"?

I love how emotionality is prey to words like "socialism", that sounds like a basic logistic employed by those with an agenda... this, however, is dialogue about how policy is formed and implemented to favor corporations and the extremely wealthy (about 6k families qualify under that verbiage). Exposure and it's subsequent measures could border on socialism in a vaccum, but with all the pitchforks at the ready for anyone that remotely supports socialism? yeah, I think that this is still a progressive environment that could only benefit at looking into underlying issues behind economic policy-making.

ed: spelling, punctuation... suckage

Edited by tremelo on 12/07/2011 16:41:11 MST.

But that is just what I said on the group conference amd the financial advisors, etc...some he did need his position for. I think most of those weren't integral though.

I didn't find him that genuine. I found him getting caught flat out lying to Milton Friedman. The guy seemed just like another misguided if well intentioned rich kid. He seemed arrogant and condescending.

Katrina.

I failed to see in the news or anywhere people that were unable to escape ahead of time barring some obvious exceptions of elderly and/or hospitalized. Now it was a great tragedy, but one that wasn't really based on the wealth gap at all. Actually if the kids plans were in place the people would be even worse off. Less gap but still poorer. But back to Katrina. Living in Texas with the refugees and the Houston news fallowing closely all facets, I saw many accounts and testimonials of the buses leaving unused ore storm, people saying they would wait it out, etc. south Carolina university did a case study. They found people also failed to leave bc of distrust of authority/cops.

The film focused on people after the fact saying they needed help. Most of those could have left before the storm hit if they wanted. But this was supposedly about the wealth gap not welfare and handouts.

Agenda.

I mean his agenda to make rich people look bad and greedy. The continued focus on wealth gap and continually ignoring the actual increase in absolute terms of quality of life.

He continually tried to talk about his dads anti poverty film and how the evil company reprimanded him. He really seemed to edit and slant that.

He focused (induced the comments actually) on kinkos founder wanting to make hundreds of millions more but ignored the fact that the guy was the American dream personified.


I agree with most of your corporation stuff.

Now let me be clear that I still am glad you posted this. I didn't feel I wasted my time. :)

I liked the several views into the super rich that we're intimate. The old ladies at the start, financial conference, Forbes for example.

To note. Since this came out the wage gap has closed considerably. Recessions do that.

That was not a very good documentary in my opinion. I have some thoughts about a more progressive tax system myself but that movie was just snippets of poor people, cut to highly edited footage to make rich people look stupid, then back to poor people.

No real argument was made or proved other than there are some really rich people and some really poor people in this country.

here is another news documentary thats related in my opinion
see if this doesn't get you mad:

"Billions Behind Bars" - Inside America's Prison Industry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUL5K4GihaI