Different take of recessions’ cause offered by documentary
Sean Hannity is talking about it. The Tea Baggers Ball in Nashville screened it. A lot of people would get immediately turned off, and that would actually be somewhat unfortunate. “It” is “Generation Zero,” a documentary film that suggests that it was not deregulation that caused America’s financial distress, but a generational crisis of ego and selfishness. The films’ makers would doubtless assert that the causes of this recession, roots in the Great Depression and all, have to do with the kind of people that would treat a personal loan company like their own piggy bank. Unfortunately, the idea of financial responsibility has become alien to many.
Baby Boom makes economic crater
Newscorpse and others don’t buy it, but let’s think about the “Generation Zero” argument. The “Greatest Generation” struggled against economic disasters and war in the 1930s and 1940s, and resolved that their children would never face the same struggles. Thus, the filmmakers argue, there was a parent-to-child overindulgence in the 1950s and 1960s. Rather than shielding them, parents gave them too much. Is the result that generations of people became decadent, and turned to consumption as a distraction instead of dealing with the cause of problems?
The hippie conspiracy
The liberal politics of the children of Woodstock are in “Generation Zero’s” sights, but that is arguably too simplistic. A more realistic view might be that a combination of Wall Street and Capitol Hill led us into the recession, where greed, lax regulation and ignorance of sound financial principles led to excessive risk-taking. This is similar ground that Michael Moore covers in “Capitalism: A Love Story,” where financial institutions are given aid but citizens are left to twist in the wind.
That’s not true – that’s impossible. “Generation Zero” leans conservative; “Capitalism: A Love Story” leans liberal, so they won’t meet in the middle, right? Perhaps not. Newscorpse draws our attention to one part of a recent on-air exchange between Sean Hannity and the “Generation Zero” movie producer and director:
Sean Hannity: Is it the political system that is more corrupt? Because I believe Capitalism works. Capitalism is the answer.
David Bossie, Producer: Clearly Capitol Hill is corrupt. Capitol Hill is the problem, not Wall Street here.
Stephen Bannon, Director: I think it an inextricably linked network between Capitol Hill and Wall Street. […You’ve had the American taxpayer, the average, middle-class American, paying taxes to bailout these big firms, and there’s been no change in behavior, no change in structure, no change in regulation.
Perhaps Bannon has a point
Politics are never as simple as right versus left. “Generation Zero” is a film born of right-wing sensibilities, but it may be more even-handed than you realize. So as our economic recession continues – with no “sustainable recovery” in sight, according to Ben Bernanke – you may think that you need a low rate personal loan now and again. If you don’t borrow above your ability to repay, you avoid the kind of mistakes that got us into this mess.
