Beyond all of the economic terms that made the film The Big Short confusing, I was still able to leave with a better understanding of the big picture beyond the economic crash of 2008. While details like the CDO's never quite made sense, the concept that mortgages were being handed out left and right, making the bankers wealthier and wealthier while the middle and lower classes lived in ticking time bombs made more and more sense.
I came into this class with very little knowledge of the capitalism, and honestly even less about the economy in general, but, just as everyone else I witnessed this economic crash, I lived it and felt it's effects. I grew up my entire childhood in the same house in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, and a wealthy suburb at that. My hometown was a combination of average middle class workers, and neighborhoods filled with mansions for those elite. Popular kids were often determined by name brand clothes, technology, and the newest cars- after all it was Detroit. Along with the rest of the world economy the Automotive Industry took a huge hit, the "Big Three" General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler plummeted in revenue. Growing up nearly everyone of my peers in school had at least one parent working in the auto industry, and well I'm sure we can all figure out where this story is going. By the time 2009 and 2010 rolled around, things had very clearly started to change in my sweet little hometown, and suddenly nearly everyone of my peers in school had at least one parent unemployed from the auto industry.
The Big Short was sure to play on the emotions of their viewers by incorporating these personal accounts such as the family with two kids, after having been evicted and living out of their car. I knew going in that the economic crisis had something to do with homes but this concept of mortgages holding up false money never quite made sense. Houses were for sale left and right, partly because no one could afford their metro Detroit mansion, and partly because Detroit had no jobs to offer to anyone. The film played on this idea of desertion of neighborhoods as Mitch Baum and his associates took to the streets knocking on doors just to find brand new homes freshly deserted, the part of the movie that perhaps made the most sense to me. All of these homes on loans, money that no one had, and no one would. The banks completely stripping people of their hard earned money through confusing terms like "subprime." I could relate in this way to Mitch Baum and his disgust with humanity, because through all of the fancy banking terms like short, and trade, swap and whatever else, people were consciously choosing to strip the middle class of their wages in return for overly lavish lifestyles.
Home became a ghost town, no one went on vacations, or got new things, stores in the local mall couldn't stay open more than a month at a time, people started riding the bus and walking home instead of driving; and while, it may seem remedial in comparison to the world's true tragedies, a fog of depression covered Detroit. Crime and homelessness went up, food pantries simply couldn't stay stocked, the list of effects went on and on. People fled Detroit like it was the plague, terrified of running out of money to pay their bills and feed their kids as savings ran out. That to me was the real Big Short. It wasn't about men in suits and ties, fancy dinners in Vegas, or anyone on Wall Street, I was just a kid trying to grasp everyone fleeing my home, and the stress on my parents' faces, as my sister headed off to college in 2009, and I would follow three years later, with my dad unemployed, and no signs of hope in the city we'd all grown up in.
This film, and it's structure, helped me better understand what can allow for an economic crash such as 2008 to happen. While I may never fully understand the economics behind it all, I think it is just as interesting to look at this movie from a social anthropological view at the greed, poverty, and socioeconomic gap that comfortably exists in this country.
I came into this class with very little knowledge of the capitalism, and honestly even less about the economy in general, but, just as everyone else I witnessed this economic crash, I lived it and felt it's effects. I grew up my entire childhood in the same house in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, and a wealthy suburb at that. My hometown was a combination of average middle class workers, and neighborhoods filled with mansions for those elite. Popular kids were often determined by name brand clothes, technology, and the newest cars- after all it was Detroit. Along with the rest of the world economy the Automotive Industry took a huge hit, the "Big Three" General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler plummeted in revenue. Growing up nearly everyone of my peers in school had at least one parent working in the auto industry, and well I'm sure we can all figure out where this story is going. By the time 2009 and 2010 rolled around, things had very clearly started to change in my sweet little hometown, and suddenly nearly everyone of my peers in school had at least one parent unemployed from the auto industry.
The Big Short was sure to play on the emotions of their viewers by incorporating these personal accounts such as the family with two kids, after having been evicted and living out of their car. I knew going in that the economic crisis had something to do with homes but this concept of mortgages holding up false money never quite made sense. Houses were for sale left and right, partly because no one could afford their metro Detroit mansion, and partly because Detroit had no jobs to offer to anyone. The film played on this idea of desertion of neighborhoods as Mitch Baum and his associates took to the streets knocking on doors just to find brand new homes freshly deserted, the part of the movie that perhaps made the most sense to me. All of these homes on loans, money that no one had, and no one would. The banks completely stripping people of their hard earned money through confusing terms like "subprime." I could relate in this way to Mitch Baum and his disgust with humanity, because through all of the fancy banking terms like short, and trade, swap and whatever else, people were consciously choosing to strip the middle class of their wages in return for overly lavish lifestyles.
Home became a ghost town, no one went on vacations, or got new things, stores in the local mall couldn't stay open more than a month at a time, people started riding the bus and walking home instead of driving; and while, it may seem remedial in comparison to the world's true tragedies, a fog of depression covered Detroit. Crime and homelessness went up, food pantries simply couldn't stay stocked, the list of effects went on and on. People fled Detroit like it was the plague, terrified of running out of money to pay their bills and feed their kids as savings ran out. That to me was the real Big Short. It wasn't about men in suits and ties, fancy dinners in Vegas, or anyone on Wall Street, I was just a kid trying to grasp everyone fleeing my home, and the stress on my parents' faces, as my sister headed off to college in 2009, and I would follow three years later, with my dad unemployed, and no signs of hope in the city we'd all grown up in.
This film, and it's structure, helped me better understand what can allow for an economic crash such as 2008 to happen. While I may never fully understand the economics behind it all, I think it is just as interesting to look at this movie from a social anthropological view at the greed, poverty, and socioeconomic gap that comfortably exists in this country.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.