Roger And Me
Roger And Me is a documentary that carries a considerable economic significance by presenting a modern version of capitalism, and by depicting an interesting example of Gunnar Myrdal’s theory of the circular and cumulative causation. Flint, the hometown of the filmmaker Michael Moore, has been built around the factories of one of the largest auto corporations in the world – General Motors. For decades on end the company has been prosperous, making high profits and keeping its workers loyal and content with their jobs and payment. Everyone in Moore’s family has worked for General Motors; the Flint residents have become not only economically but also spiritually and culturally connected with and influenced by the company – a
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Employing Mexicans for such minimal wages implies a peculiar kind of a 20th century imperialism: GM is able to extract enormous profits and to become the world’s largest corporation by super-exploiting labor in a country less well developed and economically influenced by the USA.
Of course, the board does not confess to satisfying the greed for higher profits by taking these unpopular steps; they present all the process as catching up on the competitors. “GM has to do what it has to do in order to stay competitive, even if it means laying off thousands of people”, says a member of the board, and thus makes it more than clear that in a capitalist society the managers and the directors are concerned only with the profit maximization and with their own welfare, whereas the employees have to fight for their jobs in more and more unfavorable conditions. More than 30 000 workers have now lost their jobs, whereas the company’s chairman Roger Smith has just made $2 millions himself. The unions are no help at all in this moment. Supposed to increase the workers’ bargaining power, the unions have now become useless, since “too many people in the unions friends with the management”, whose interests, in this case, are completely the opposites to those of the workers.
The closure of the factories is the first step toward the devastating
This week’s reading, “Perspectives on Globalization”, and the film, “Maquilapolis: City of Factories”, both show how maquiladoras take advantage of cheap labor in Third World countries. The reading says, “These imperatives, coupled with inexpensive labor and other lower costs in Third World Countries, as well as technological innovations that make it relatively simple for manufacturing plants to shut down at one sit and re-open at another…” (289), companies will open up maquiladoras in one country for a while and then leave to another country once they find even cheaper labor. This is shown in the film when maquiladora worker Carmen Duran speaks about how Sanyo, the company she worked for, shut down their factories and left Mexico. Carmen
This onslaught of capitalism directly revolutionized modern industrialism as well as the industrial city. Machines morphed the predominately agricultural nation to a herd of factory and corporate workers. Swarms of people, both native and immigrant, flocked to major cities. “The present century has been marked by a prodigious increase in wealth-producing power. The utilization of steam and electricity, the introduction of improved processes and labor saving machinery, the greater subdivision and grander scale of production, the wonderful facilitation of exchanges, have multiplied enormously the effectiveness of labor.”(George, p.20) The major problem with this newfound industrialism was the way in which the workforce was treated. Capitalism was supposed to provide a way out, a way ascend the financial and social staircase, if you worked hard enough. This however was not the case, if you were a loyal, hardworking employee you simply got to keep your job, and if you were in any way injured or incompetent you were fired.
The workers believed that the firing of Arthur T. Demoulas would lead to the destruction of Market Basket. The belief that Arthur T. Demoulas’s firing would be the end of Market Basket was due to his replacements, James Gooch and Felicia Thornton. Gooch and Felicia Thornton were hired simply to ‘because they were experts at taking apart companies’. (QUOTE???) If Market Basket went down, employees would not only lose their jobs but they would be losing a great job that had benefits like scholarships and stock shares. Many of Market Basket’s employees that had been working there a long time had made it their careers and didn’t have experience elsewhere. Without outside experience, and a general reluctance or refusal to work for other grocery chains, those employees were filled with fear and anxiety because Market
In this sociological study, an analysis of the rise of neoliberalism and the failure of Marxist ideology in the film Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) by Michael Moore. Moore’s film emulates the failed attempts to control and regulate a capitalist system that exploits the worker and the general public for the greater monetary profit of the ruling classes. In this system, the power of banking institutions, lack of governmental regulation, and “free market” ideology define the problem of neoliberal capitalist values that have become an endemic problem for a “democratic” society. Immanuel Wallerstein’s global view of capitalism defines the overarching dominance of neoliberal capitalism as a way to critique and analyze Moore’s frustration at a system that is destroying itself due to a lack of cooperation and collectivist participation in the American economy. Also, Luhmann’s functionalist theory defines the irrationality of capitalist ideology, which has created a social and cultural “norm” that supports capitalism—even though it is creating class division and poverty for a majority of the people. These aspects of Marxist and Functionalist perspectives critically define the underlying failure of Marxist ideology in Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. In essence, Moore’s film defines the failure of Marxism in the rise of neoliberal capitalism in
There are old and deeply held resentments between factory workers and middle management whom the factory workers believe “stole” the workers share of the company when privatization. This resentment has never gone away. The workers were also deeply resentful of the dual wage structure whereby sales and management staff who were transferred Pibrex AO (the Moscow sales and
who have been continuously employed by the company for many years (Keenan, 2017). Furthermore, while NAFTA and other similar trade agreements may have been structured to benefit economies as a whole, Mexico has recently surpassed Canada as one of the largest auto producing states in the global industry (Owram, 2016). An example such as this goes to show that regardless of how large an industry may be, it is still susceptible to the laws and fluctuations of economics.
Wal-Mart has adopted a business model strategy of using low labor costs which is a threat to gains won historically by unions. It has also adopted a strategy of issuing threats to workers who support unionization. The strategy requires a company that honors its worker compensation policies to the latter. It means it will continue to hurt workers since the company has failed to honor workers compensation law policies. The compensation policies of the company do not match the strategy. The company has a very bad policy of delaying workers payments and
Roger Deakins is a cinematographer who is well known for his work on award-winning films that include Fargo, The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men, A Beautiful Mind, True Grit, and more. He has earned nine academy award nominations on his work. He has also partnered with the Coen brothers. Roger Deakins studied at Bath Academy of Art and then extended his education later on and went to study at the National Film School. He started out as a still photographer, but went on into the motion picture business. Deakins got his first cinematography gig in the business as a crew member aboard a yacht with a documentary film crew. The yacht was in an around-the-world race, however, so in order for Deakins to be able to work in the position
Capitalism and the free world have long been intertwined in their state of dependency. Reaping insurmountable benefits, this economic system has become fully entrenched in our society, elevating itself to a deity. In the 2009 documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, film maker Michael Moore advocates the “blasphemous” notion that capitalism is “evil”. Although the documentary targets an American audience, its representation of capitalist corruption resonates globally. Throughout the documentary Moore mercilessly critiques the status quo while illustrating his condemnation with stark portraits of suffering ensued by economic crises to question the price that America is willing to pay for its love affair with capitalism. Despite blatant bias,
We have been seeing in class about the neoliberalism reform in Latin America through out the years and some of its implications it has had in this region. For my paper, I will go further into the effects that neoliberalism reform had in Mexico. My paper will focus on the effects the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had specifically on Mexican workers, which will provide further information and understanding as to what has been presented in class.
Mexico’s Constitution and Labor Laws provide more protections to employees than what required under the U.S. statute (Richard A. Posthuma, James B. Dworkin, Veronica Torres, Diana L. Bustillos, 2000). For example, unless there is a justified cause of termination established by the FLL, it is hard for employers to fire employees, which forms a sharp contrast to the employment-at-will states in the U.S. There are some key specific items of Mexican Labor Laws that U.S multinational companies should be aware
Introduction. Karl Marx predicted globalization even when there was no sign of it. "The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe," he wrote. "It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish connexions everywhere." (Marx, 10 Communist Manifesto). While this may seem like an obvious point now, Marx wrote those words in 1848, when globalization was over a century away. The effects of globalization in Mexico have been devastating due to influx of foreign companies mainly for cheap labor. The causes and effects can be explained with various concepts Marx used in his theories. To understand the concepts, it’s important to understand the two major theories of Karl
During the 1960s the maquiladoras opened between the US and Mexico border, creating a new source of employment with better wages than other regions in Mexico, as a result it drew several women to move into the area and join the industry. They make up for 80% of the work force inside the factories since they are attributed the qualities of being “docile” and “agile” while working for a cheaper wage. (POV Interactive, 2015) The maquiladoras were created as a solution to the growing consumerist trend in the United States in order to offer low prices while meeting the quantities needed to supply the demand. However, the real price is paid by the employees in these factories where their rights are constantly violated; they are not paid enough, not given proper health welfare, suffer ethnic discrimination, work over-time without compensation and in some cases, even sexual harassment. These women find themselves without anywhere to turn for help and since they need their salaries, they are forced to accept the conditions set by their employers.
Filmmaker Michael Moore explores corporate greed, the global economic meltdown, and their disastrous effect on American lives. As he travels from the Heartland to the financial epicenter of New York and the halls of government in Washington, Moore delves into the price the country pays for its love of capitalism. Michael Moore demonstrates the failure of Capitalism as an economic system in America. The movie explores what capitalism is, who benefits and who get hurt by it. The film clearly shows how capitalism was hijacked by special interests and how it decimated the middle class, making it so much smaller while at the same time enlarging the poor underclass. It can be seen how at the same time that Wall Street and the banks grew, society’s devastation was soon to follow. It is clear in the film that the poorest, uneducated, and hardworking middle class are the most likely people to be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous corporations such as the home loan industry, and many others business out there.
To begin with, the voice of workers are intended to be heard by politics to try and make a change in each and one of their lifestyles. Unfortunately, during recent years there has been a downfall in unions, “Smaller numbers in unionized workers mean less bargaining power, and less bargaining power results in less wages” (Reich). At the present time, Americans no longer have enough power to keep