Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream

source: Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream

Voter registration records (which are public in NYC) and campaign contributions and bundling records at FEC dot gov show that Park ave is overwhelmingly Democrat. Yet no mention of this and the implication by anecdote that it is GOP when it is Dem?

I am glad I watched this film carefully and critically. There's a subtle guise to make it look objective, scapegoating Schumer and casting a generally negative light on the DNC too. Our system is undoubtedly broken. However, as an economist, I can't take this film seriously because more than a dozen charts and graphs shown here lack sources and footnotes. In my world, un- cited data is worthlessly dangerous and usually depicts fiction. Because I am intimately familiar with the actual data, (BEA, BLS, COB, etc) I am comforted by reality and know that the "experts" here are not lying; they are simply stupid people. Further though, the poverty pimping respondents featured in the film suffer from denial. The dumbing down of America is very real and is a pervasive snowball. I've been dead-ass broke 2 times in my adult life and I strived myself out of the hole, unassisted. I smirk with amazement that the fricken bell-boy complained about a $50 Christmas gift from someone (David Koch) who was not obligated to to give anything. Yet he hides his face and voice and pines that he somehow deserves more? If he could only see that Mr. Koch is doing him a favor. The kind of entitlement propagated here and throughout 'progressive' America is shameful. I have no sympathy or compassion for the "experts" featured in this hack piece nor especially for the bell- hop. But if you rated this film above a 6, my heart bleeds for you. You have all my compassion. PS: One reviewer who loved this film wrote they were "surprised it wasn't nominated for an Oscar". Ironically, so am I.

Typical liberal nonsense. That's all I'm going to write.

I find it interesting that this documentary came out in 2012 and at that time people were bringing attention to the ever widening income gap between the wealthiest Americans and average Americans. Ten years later nothing's changed, in fact it's worse. Who would've thought that a single person would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars? Two such people exist now. What we see in "Park Avenue" is what we see in "Inside Job" (2010), "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" (2005), and "Capitalism: A Love Story" (1997) just to name a few movies about unchecked greed. "Park Avenue" is eye-opening in that it says a lot about the world's wealthiest and our government, but it says a lot about the average American as well. We live in a democratic republic. That means that the people run the country on the basis of having a vote. Even with the strength of corporations and fat cats having a direct line to lawmakers, if enough people made enough noise, things would change. But what does the average American think? "That could be me one day." They could be the next Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, David Koch, or John Thain and they wouldn't want the government in their pockets. It's that idea and that dream that is constantly dangled in front of every American that keeps us complicit in the status quo. All we need to see is a handful of rags-to-riches stories and we're sold. If that were not the case, we'd have long ago changed things.

This is quite an eye-opener regarding the incestuous relationships between the über-wealthy, corporations, political action committees, Congress and even the U.S. President. Like I say in the title to this post, it should be a mandatory study portion in any Civics, U.S. Government, Economics and even US History classes at all levels of education starting in 6th Grade. Each student should delve more deeply and asked to write a paper with proposed solutions to this issue. It very plainly explains how the top 1% of the top 1% (and even the top 10% too) of the wealthy in this country wield true power through their money. I don't believe it's a bad thing to be wealthy or even über- wealthy; it is how they use that money that is offending to me. If the top 400 wealthiest people in our country would donate even 2% of their annual net worth (not salaries or bonuses) at Thanksgiving each year, this money (probably into the billions range) would go a long way to reduce hunger in America and they could create many endowed scholarships at many universities or to local Community Colleges to help the middle and lower classes to become empowered to earn their way up. Luckily, we do have a good number of very civic minded billionaires in our country, beginning with Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, who created the "The Giving Pledge" (givingpledge.org) and I would estimate that over one-half who have signed the pledge are Americans. This philanthropic endeavor is estimated, as of July 2010, to worth in excess of $125 BILLION dollars. Today, it must exceed @00 BILLION. On a personal note, the list also includes a very special lady, Lynn Schusterman, who I've met and worked for her now deceased husband, Charles Schusterman, at his primary business, oil and gas production. Their daughter Stacey has been the CEO since shortly before her father passed. This family has done so much for our state, Oklahoma, by contributing to the University of Oklahoma (OU). As a matter of fact my hometown, Tulsa, would probably never have an OU campus, if not for Lynn and their family Schusterman Foundation. She's very active in family and children's services and a slew of other organizations that badly need their assistance. Charles, Lynn and Stacy, who I all met and spoke to on numerous occasions, were all very approachable and very caring about his employees. Much like Warren Buffett, Charles was down to earth and a hard worker. I would be remiss if I did not mention the hundreds of millions of dollars of giving and active management of those resources by T. Boone Pickens, to our other state run university, Oklahoma State. He's given to OU and many other organizations here. We are very lucky to have these two fine families call our state, home. I'm not believer in conspiracy theories like "A One World Nation", "The Bilderberg's", "Trilateral Commission", Yale's "Skull & Bones", the Freemason's and the list could on and on. The fact is that once you acquire a vast amount of wealth, through any means, you get a seat at the table with the political power broker's. Especially, since SCOTUS gave corporations the right to been seen and treated as an individual person that then allowed them to make almost unlimited campaign contributions stemming from the "Citizen's United" case. Politician's need money like humans need air. That is an inextricable fact. Also, this documentary states unequivocally that it's the lobbyists who actually write the legislation that comes to floor of either house of Congress with little or few modifications. I wasn't overly surprised but surprised and concerned enough to ask this one question: WHO IS ACTUALLY RUNNING OUR COUNTRY? Watch "Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream (2012)" and then, decide for yourself.

Although very upsetting, this documentary was great. I wouldn't give it a 10 because it was a little short and incomplete. Interestingly, most of the people incriminated in this documentary declined to comment. It would have been nice to hear their point of view and comments on some of their speeches featured in the documentary. It seems that the only reviewers who didn't like this documentary just hated it. This says a lot more about them than it does about the documentary, which included a lot of plain economic facts. How can you disagree with facts? It's hard not to be shocked by some of the data presented here. I actually find it ironic that a lot of Republicans argue that America has become a communist country when the gap between the rich and the poor has never been bigger, and that lobbies sponsored by corporations draft every bill in this country. It is depressing to think that some people would be so gullible. Taxes for the rich have never been lower either. Many lower and middle class Americans get manipulated into rooting for the 1 % thinking that it will benefit them in the long run. Fact is, thanks to the Bush tax cuts, the rich has never paid as little tax. The argument was that this would create millions of jobs. All it really did was increasing our deficit by several trillions. Even though it won't gel with everyone, this documentary is a must-see.

In this short documentary which is about an hour long, you'll get to understand more of the mindset that brought us our current extreme inequality : greed & power, as well political influence by the wealthiest. It dispels the myth of how "benevolent" & deceitful the wealthy elite can act towards the base that supports them. It shows how money can buy some politicians who loudly promises to reform tax laws but will bury it at the first opportunity. This documentary will not make more friends out of right-wingers or Republicans (ex: Paul Ryan). It's a captivating documentary but way too short as it's still only one piece of the whole puzzle. This movie states what the problems are but cannot present solutions and we're left to our own devices. As an excellent complement to this documentary, watch the PBS documentary "Big Sky, Big Money". You'll discover how much unaccountable shadow money can influence & subvert American politics! If you're serious about knowing more, documentaries/movies such as "Inside Job", "The Shock Doctrine", "The Revolution will not be televised", "The Take", "Zeitgeist Moving forward" will help further your understanding of the social/financial changes that needs to take place if we're to have a sustainable future or ANY future at all...

I watched this movie with great interest - and read the reviews with almost the same interest, especially those criticizing the movie. For me this actually underpins one of the movie's important messages: the challenge for society with very conflicting world views. Basically, I think it is almost impossible to make the perfect documentary, at least when it comes to social and psychological matters. If you want to include everything the movie will be extremely detailed and complicated. So - you have to choose an angle, as every writer on history do. By choosing to highlight one aspect of an issue, you necessarily will have to skip others. But does this mean that you cannot learn anything from the story told? No. As a Scandinavian I am very eager to achieve a deeper understanding of the American society since it has a profound influence on the rest of the world- and I must say I disagree completely with Brian, also from Denmark, when stating that Gibneys movie was a waste of time. The movie seems to me very clearly to document a serious problem for the stability of the American society, based apparently on very different ways of perceiving and interpreting the surrounding world. But a difference with vast consequences for the less powerful and well-off population. Of course you will be able to point your fingers at aspects in any documentary, as mentioned before - but does that mean that the remainder of the movie is irrelevant, as Brian seems to think? For me - no. His argument is for me merely a fig leaf for avoiding a discussion of very serious matters. Thanks and credit for Alex Gibney for presenting this thought-provoking movie for us, and for giving us the opportunity to continue investigating and reflecting.

It begins with a rather interesting focus on a New York residence building that has more billionaires than any other. It goes downhill with its almost single-minded focus on blaming the Republicans for all the sins of the evil rich in the U.S. It gives great detail on how the Koch brothers use their money to influence politicians but you could easily replace Koch with Soros or Bezos and see the same thing is happening on the Democrat side. Both political parties are beholden to money and this film would do much better if it were just truthful about that. There are about 2-3 minutes devoted to exposing Chuck Schumer's role in preventing the repeal of a huge tax loophole for hedge fund managers. The truly enjoyable thing about watching this is that it is 2020 and I have the benefit of seeing how prosperous our country became after President Obama left office and new economic policies were put into place. Putting the effects of the pandemic aside (which no one could predict or control), the U.S. had such low unemployment numbers for everyone, not just certain segments. That shows that people truly want to work and not be dependent upon "programs" and assistance. Cutting regulations and focusing on making business conditions favorable in the U.S. has allowed many jobs to return to the U.S. Despite the dire warnings of the Democrats over the years, these policies actually put unions in stronger positions in the U.S. as businesses want to be here and Americans want to buy American-made products. Our economy can work for everyone and we can all achieve the American dream when we remove the class envy and warfare that is perpetuated by politicians.