1 paragraph - Address (most of) the questions below:
- What did you think about the film?
- What was your immediate reaction?
- Do you agree with the premise of the film? Why or why not?
- What can government do to address the problem of income inequality?
- What can ordinary citizens do to help solve this problem? What can you do? Please don't say nothing!
Include your blog number and/ or your name
DUE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26th
The film provided a real insight of the reality of wealth in America. I always heard about eh economic problems in our nation from the television. However, I never really cared or got interested because my parents would only listen to the republican propaganda networks like FOX or Rush Limbaugh, but this film actually got me interested in politics and how it intertwines with the wealthy. I had no idea how much the wealthy controlled the finances in America. It was an eye-opener. My immediate reaction was a bit of confusion. It took me a few minutes to actually comprehend what they were saying, but once I did I was a bit disgusted of how much they controlled. I do agree with the premise of the film, but I think I should be more educated before making a proper stance. I do believe it is unfair that the wealthy and rich control so much and the severity they influence politics. I think it would be very hard for the government to fix this problem. The government relies on the wealthy’s superPACs when it comes to election. Politics and the wealthy are disgustingly too involved with each other. It is highly unlikely that ordinary citizens can change this inequality, but it is possible. This would only change of at least 80-90% of ordinary citizens will participate, there would be extreme boycotts, demonstrations and talks from ordinary people to politicians can do it. It would be slow change, but at least it’s change.
ReplyDelete~ 13
~ Tracy
The film an interesting look into what it is like being in the 1 percent and how those people take their money into account. It thought this film had a very strong impact because it came from someone from one of the richest families in the world. I believe that if it wasn't him who made the film than it wouldn't be as powerful. I don't entirely agree with the premise of the film. The major reason why is that there is also another side of the story to it too. Like in any documentary, there were only examples of people that supported his idea, while int eh real world there are others who have good reasons not to feel the same way he does. But, I mostly agree with the ideas this film brings up, because the statistics show that this group of people are growing stronger and more powerful; it may not be all of them but it is most of them. The only thing the government can do is change the tax cuts from the trickle down method to a method where lower income families and businesses get the tax breaks. The only thing that ordinary citezens can do is to help advocate and use their voteing power to put people into government offices; they are the 99% so they can use their strength in numbers to control the government, instead of the 1% influenceing the government.
ReplyDelete--1
After watching this film I had been informed on the true problem in our country, poverty and the rich keeping all of the money for themselves and leaving the rest of the country to live in poverty. What surprised me the most was that the United States is the country that has the highest poverty rate for a developed country. How did it get this way? The country was once so strong and powerful where American pride flourished and everyone was proud of the American lifestyle. But today it just seems like a mess where most of the jobs are outsourced, huge corporations and rich families keep money for themselves and do not let it circulate to the public. My first reaction to this video was "Oh it's just another guy yapping about how he has too much money and he hates his life because of all of that money." But in reality this video had not even been close to what I had assumed it would be. This movie had proved that the trickle down theory is completely pointless to our society because as the rich get richer it does not effect the poor in any way, the poor just get poorer as time goes on. In my opinion I believe if the government increased taxes for the rich to at least 40 percent of their income depending on the amount that they make annually because it is highly known that some people are so rich that they can literally survive off 15 percent of their income and it would be more than enough for an average household of america. Also I believe churches should not be exempt from taxes because I do not see why they should not pay taxes like everyone else, as coming from a point of view of an atheist I do not see the reason of why the church should be excluded from paying taxes because they are just ordinary people that just read from a book that was written 3500 years ago (roughly, the earliest works of the bible were found to be dated 3500 years old). Also I believe churches should be taxed as a business mainly due to them having many similarities to businesses, such as certain working hours, employees, meetings every Sunday with their "customers". Therefore I believe the rich should get taxed more as well as churches and religious groups should be taxed and the poor working class a break.But what about the poor families/people that sit around with no jobs and wait for checks from the government in order to survive and don't even bother contributing to society, I strongly believe that they should all be shipped off to North Korea and leave a mysterious life of the North Korean people and adjust to the customs of their new life. On the other hand ordinary citizens can do a lot to help, one of many things would be spread the word of the situation such as the video we had watched in class could be shared on social networking websites, with your family and even post it to your blog. Make people around you aware of the situation that is going on in America to this day.
ReplyDeleteKirill 2016 !
(lol jk I can never run for president T.T runs away with his broken dreams)
The film gave insight of the actual “one percent”. Their views were exposed with some being completely open with what they thought, while the others wouldn’t even speak. My reaction to the film was that it was a wonderful effort to inform people. I give props to him for making the movie because it’s exposing his family and going against them. I agree with the premise of the film because I never really knew how big the gap was and it never really concerned me or got me interested. I’m not really sure as to what the government could do besides tax cuts. Raise the 1% tax rates because they’re lower than ever and they can handle them. As for ordinary citizens they could elect different representatives to use their numbers because there is an outstanding number of ordinary people as to the super rich.
ReplyDelete~~~~~8
Overall I thought the documentary about the 1% was a nice effort in trying to inform the general public about the economic inequalities. I thought the narrator was courageous because he rebelled against his fathers beliefs and brought light to the realities of the wealthy. My immediate reaction was indifferent mainly because I had heard about many of the inequalities already. The ways in which the wealthy use their money to gain power is something that has been going on for centuries. There is not much that can be done about this injustice. The government can only step in and raise the taxes on the rich and get rid of loop holes. Also a tax cut for the lower classes would help even out the economic differences. However, these strategies will most likely not take effect because the wealthy have a lot of control of the government. This leaves the lower classes to take a stance. People need to rebel to show government how they feel about the situation. One way to rebel would be to elect members that stand for the same values the middle and lower classes do. I agree with the film, because the director has proven through his examples that the many of the wealthy behave this way. However, there are exceptions to every negative aspect the narrator explained.
ReplyDelete~3
I thought the film “The One Percent” was good because it was his attempt, as part of one of the richest families or the one percent, to make a difference. He tried to inform us of the increasing gap between the rich, middle, and poor classes and that the rich are getting richer. My immediate reaction was that informing people, making people more knowledgeable, isn’t enough if they don’t do something about the problem. I don’t fully agree with the premise of the film because it is clearly very biased and he only wants to show certain sides of the situation. I think the only thing the government could do to address the problem of income inequality is to give more tax breaks to the lower class. Ordinary citizens, however, can stop the idea of being too good for certain jobs and realize that you have to work hard and start small if you want it to pay off in the end. There are very few people that can go right into their chosen field and make a lot of money. We are becoming a society of lazy people and have to realize things are not going to be handed down to us; we have to work hard for them. I think if everyone thought that way we would see less of a gap between the classes.
ReplyDelete-9 (Rachel)
Simply stated, this film really hit home for me. Being the child of two extremely conservative and biased parents, I've grown up listening to nothing but my mother and father complain about how the "government takes all of our money" and how it's being "unfairly stolen and given to the lazy people who sit around collecting unemployment." I constantly ask my father why he feels like he is entitled to have all the money that he does and why he hates the taxes so much. He wholeheartedly believes that people who earn less money than he does don't work as hard as he does, which is 100% wrong. The way that he and my mother talk about "those stupid liberals" has bothered me for so many years because I know that there are people who deserve some extra help to make ends meet. On the other hand, I've listened to other adults in my life speak about how they received money from the government after being fired and decided to go on vacation with it. Others have sported brand name clothes all their lives and complained about how they don't make enough money to pay their bills. This film has really made me think about the extremism that goes on in American culture.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the film came off as biased, I agree with the premise and admire the filmmaker for risking his relationship with his family to complete the movie. It's tough defying the people whose roof you live under, and I think he really did well in appearing like he knew the facts and had a justified opinion. I believe that there is a wealth (hehe puns) of corruption that occurs within "the 1%," but I also believe that there are SOME people out there who do receive undeserved handouts. There are also tons of hardworking Americans who make much too little, and hardworking Americans who make a little too much in comparison. It doesn't mean that one works harder than the other, and it makes perfect sense to tax the slightly richer Americans and help out the families who deserve extra help. In a perfect world, the government should ask families whom they would be sending money to to include proof that they are working or looking for work to prevent the lazy people in this world from getting money that they don't deserve. There should also be a much stricter system for preventing tax evasion and increased taxes on the one percent.
15
This film provided a detailed and different outlook on what being a part of the higher classes of wealth in the United States. I thought the film was a different insight than what I'm used to thinking normally. My immediate reaction was shock, due to the boastful behavior of some people compared to the quiet demeanor of others. This film was relatable to my personal life, too, coming from a middle class family. It's an indescribable feeling when you see someone who doesn't appreciate their own wealth and brag about it when I work extremely hard to maintain even decent grades and save up for my education. It's extremely unfair also that some of these billionaires pay less income tax than my parents do. Yes I do agree with the premise of the film. It gave America more of an insight as to what is being controlled by who and how unfair it is. There isn't much the government can even do to resolve this issue, besides raising the income tax for the wealthy. The people cannot do much, but the effort is what really counts. Protests and public speaking to get the word out is one of the most effective ways. This will help others change their opinions and possibly lead up to different leaders to be elected in to the US congress and new laws to be created and tested out regarding taxes...
ReplyDelete-14 I think my number is.........Cool ~Meg
The film was pretty interesting. At first I thought it would be biased because of the act that it was by someone who was pretty much the “one percent” but it turned out to be much different. This film dose a good job of addressing the ever growing problem of inequality in our country by showing the large gap between those living in poverty or the middle class from those who are nearly millionaires. It also is comforting to know that there are some people in this one percent that still care for the lower class and are not blind to the growing gap. I do agree with the premise of this film because it helps to inform others of the growing gap. Although he could have started this movie by doing a little more research the movie was all around well done and showed how much the higher income families were different from the lower income. The government doesn’t seem to be doing much to address this issue but if they ever do than they could start by lowering taxes on the poor and putting higher taxes on the rich but because of the tax breaks the rich are already getting because of the government it seems like a far stretch for this to ever happen. What people in our society can do it start petitions, boycotts, and even public events in order to lessen the gap between us.
ReplyDelete--11
I thought that the film was a good eye-opener as to the actual gap between the top 1% and the rest of the population. My immediate reaction was to be angry that these people have so much money when there are others out there with so little. I agree with the premise of the film because society has a right to know just how much money the top 1% has that they are keeping hidden from the rest of the world. The government can tax the rich more so as to better distribute the wealth among the population. People can go to Washington D.C and protest or petition to fight for higher taxation on the top 1% of the population.
ReplyDelete~6
I thought that the film was interesting and gave me insight on something that I knew absolutely nothing about. I never realized that all these companies that are used in my everyday life are owned by families part of the 1%. My immediate reaction was that I thought it was good that the movie was made by someone who is actuall part of the 1%. It shows that someone with the power to make a difference and the power to share the porblem with the world is making an effort to do so. I agree with the premise of this film because I think that a lot of people do not realize what is happening and do not care enough. Most people dont realize what the potential long term affects might be. I do not have a plan for the government but I definitely do not think that they should rely on the "trickle down" thoery. I dont think that there is much that ordinary citizens can do besides try to make this movie and this problem more mainstream and more well known. This is an easy thing to do, but it can cause a big impact.
ReplyDelete---2
I thought that the movie was very interesting and it show me how much of a difference there was between the upper class and lower class. Also it was interesting how some of the 1% tried to ignore the issue as if it weren’t there while others knew that there was a problem and openly talked about it. This also shows how just one person can make a difference by informing people. I agree with the film because there is a major issue in difference in class. The government could raise taxes on the wealthy so that lower class families would have an easier time and there could be a little bit of equality. Ordinary citizens could donate things to less fortunate because they aren't always able to afford the same thing. This way there wouldn’t be much of a difference but there would at least be less inequality.
ReplyDelete-16
I think the author of the video was just a whiny, pretentious kid. He is in such a place of power and all he did about this injustice is post a video on netflix? I don't even have a netflix account. There was no coverage on the news or even an advertisement, via television or while browsing the web. How did he expect people to see it, if they were not actually looking for it. Granted, yes, there are people out there that do look this kind of thing up, that would see the video and decide to watch it, but at that point you're not reaching anyone new, but simply preaching to the chorus. A chorus that does not have half, even a quarter of the power, and capability of social change as you do.
ReplyDeleteThe government can even out the tax differences. Instead of stealing from the poor and giving to the rich, tax them up and down their street like driveways and they'll still be far better off than the rest of us, just more on an even playing field.
-Stephanie