To all MNE readers...
I'd like to introduce Kevin B. who will be contibuting here.
This documentary has been around a while so forgive if you have all seen it. It was made by Jamie Johnson, the 27-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. He is a sensitive young man who is very troubled about inequality and the poverty he sees in the world around him. He is a natural liberal and is very emphatic.
The Left often call for a tax on the rich at 70% plus, and Joseph Stiglitz say's that even more would be better to create a more richer, prosperous society for all, including the rich. Now I have no problem with that as such, but what if people like Jamie Johnson were to get driven back into 'The System' if such a tax was ever imposed.
When his father was a young man he made a documentary about the poverty in Africa, but his family severely reprimanded him and he never did anything like that again and so his documentary became forgotten. He toed the line and now he, too, severely disapproves of Jamie Johnson's documentary. You can see how he had to harden his heart and turn away from the painful feelings inside of himself which Jamie's documentary is now re-opening.
Forgive me as this as this is my first post, and I'm not an expert on MMT, but Randolph Wray say's in his book, The Modern Money Theory Primer, that we don't have to tax the rich excessively to pay for high quality public services. There are lots of very rich people who, like Jamie Johnson, are natural liberals (or moderate conservatives) and we need as many of them on our side as possible, and with MMT, it seems, we can have the society we want without alienating the wealthy.
Jamie Johnson's documentary is a real fly on the wall look at one of America's richest families. It is fantastic and I really liked Jamie Johnson. I bet you will too.
The One Percent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmlX3fLQrEc
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.
