Now there's a concept -- health as a national self-image. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Directed by Alex Gibney. Say you play out that metaphor, and seek causes for the nation's loss of health, even as an idea. the money to do so. As Alex Gibney's Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream reveals, these causes don't include accident or illness or fate, but instead, are the logical result of a system, whether you understand that system to be working perfectly or exploited. Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power. © 1999-2020 PopMatters.com. How could it not be when the chance of an infant dying is five t..." This address boasts the highest number of billionaires in the United States, many of whom actively lobby and finance political campaigns to lower taxes on the wealthy. Ryan takes in more money from the Koch brothers than any other member of Congress, the film points out, and also tends to quote from the "once discredited philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand." Park Avenue: Money, Power & The American Dream If income inequality were a sport, the residents of 740 Park Avenue in Manhattan would all be medalists. Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. According to the American Dream, it is possible for anyone living in the South Bronx Park Avenue to one day live in the prestigious Manhattan Park Avenue. If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought. Class apart: Manhattan’s Park Avenue in ‘Money, Power and the American Dream’ “Just because you’re rich doesn’t make you cultured. 740 Park Avenue - an exclusive apartment building in Manhattan - is currently home to more billionaires than any other building in the United States. The system is premised on myth, such that the generous contributions by the Kochs and others to arts and other needy organizations help to promote and so entrench the system. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. 10 minutes to the north, and over the Harlem River, is the other Park Avenue in the South Bronx, where more than half the population need food stamps and children are 20 times more likely to be killed. 740 Park is the home of the 1% of the 1% and has been the home of the finance ‘masters of the universe’ since the robber baron architects of the Great Depression lived there. Across the river, less than five miles away, Park Avenue runs through the South Bronx, home to the poorest congressional district in the United States. Filmmaker Alex Gibney investigates the fact that the 400 richest Americans control more wealth than the 150 million people in the bottom 50 percent of the population. Here, unemployment runs at 19% and half the population need food stamps. Deregulation, of course, is a favorite means for banks and corporations to expand their domains and reduce access to those domains for everyone else. Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. With Alex Gibney, Jack Abramoff, Michele Bachmann, Bruce Bartlett. One is memorialized in movies while the other is often treated as a forgettable backdrop. Filmmaker Alex Gibney investigates the fact that the 400 richest Americans control more wealth than the 150 million people in the bottom 50 percent of the population. On Monday, November 12, the PBS Independent Lens series debuts Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream, by Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney. Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream (2012) 3 of 3 Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream (2012) Titles Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream Today, the 1% control more wealth than 90% of Americans, and the vast middle class is no longer vast. It appears that such pressures are built into the US econo-political system (only refined now, or perhaps more accurately, sledge-hammered). Journalist Jane Mayer puts it this way: "If you're poor enough and your schooling is bad enough, you don’t really have the opportunity to compete.". In Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream Gibney states that while income disparity has always existed in the U.S., it has accelerated sharply over the last 40 years. Credits: Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream—Why Poverty? Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney presents his take on the gap between the rich and poor in Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream. How could it not be when the chance of an infant dying is five times greater on the Bronx Park Avenue than on Manhattan's Park Avenue just across the Harlem River? How could it not be when the chance of an infant dying is five times greater on the Bronx Park Avenue than on Manhattan’s Park Avenue just across the Harlem River? But a more accurate, or at least forceful, title for it would be We’re All Screwed or, for those with more sensitive sensibilities, We’re All Fucked. It is believed, that the richest and the most influential people live there. Witness snapshots of the wealthy and the poor who are divided by such a small distance. ‘Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream’ is an intentionally angry film. 740 Park Ave, New York City, is home to some of the wealthiest Americans. In Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream, “2007 George Bush spent fifteen minutes at the door of Steve Schwartzman asking for money, then he received 1.5 million for a republican event” (Alex Gibney). The movie Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream is devoted to this very issue. The distance, the film argues forcefully, is the result of a game that's been "rigged" by those who have wealth and consequent power, and mean to hang onto it. Just because you’re rich doesn’t make you refined. Logged in users can submit quotes. Mayer points out as well that the Tea Party was never a populist movement or a "spontaneous combustion," as it was promoted, but instead was funded and instigated by "libertarian billionaires" (again, like the Kochs) devising numerous pressures on Congress, to continue to rig their game. In his documentary, “Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream” (2012), Alex Gibney challenges the notion that the American dream of success can be achieved by hard work. Self-image is what matters, whether that self-image is believed by the Tea Party or Congress or America. This address boasts the highest number of billionaires in … 'Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream' is an intentionally angry film. As Alex Gibney's Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream reveals, these causes don't include accident or illness or fate, but instead, are the logical result of … 740 Park Avenue, Manhattan, is one of the most exclusive addresses in the world, home to some of the richest Americans, the 1% of the 1%. Is Christian Petzold's 'Undine' Myth or Therapeutic Dialogue? It was believed, that every person had a chance to become prosperous and rich. ( Here is the PBS Independent Lens website, where you can check local listings and learn more about alternate viewing options .) Cast: Paul PIff, Jeffrey Sachs, Jane Mayer, Popular Culture Is Eating Its History and OMD Are Not Complaining, BTS Master the Art of Timeless, Universal Songwriting with 'BE', Nicki and Patrick Adams Offer an Engaging Classical/Jazz Hybrid on 'Lynx', LOG ET3RNAL Is a Dubbed-out Beauty of Soft, Skeletal Ambience, Elvis Costello Gets Dark and Brooding on 'Hey Clockface', Shanghai Restoration Project Offer Innovative Alternate Reality on 'Brave New World Symphony', Filmmaker Diane Paragas on 'Yellow Rose' and the Heartbreak Behind Anti-Immigration Policies, On Finnish Film 'Open Up to Me' and Trans Portrayal in Film. Everything depended on a persons abilities and luck. (00:41) Credits: Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream—Why Poverty? As of 2010, the 400 richest Americans controlled more … All rights reserved.PopMatters is wholly independent, women-owned and operated. Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society. "'Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream' is an intentionally angry film. The filmmakers pose the question of if the American Dream is still obtainable. The distance between wealth and poverty, the film argues, is not only an accident of birth (or, as some might argue, a matter of will or hard work or taking advantage of opportunities). We found subtitles for the program Park Avenue - Money, Power and the American Dream. Ten minutes to the north, across the Harlem River, is the other Park Avenue, in the South Bronx. Opportunity is a key concept in this argument, specifically as underclass and under-educated communities don't have it. The former super lobbyist (and subject of Gibney's excellent film, Casino Jack and the United States of Money) allows that he came to his insight in hard ways ("It required my demise"), but now makes it his business to expose the system he once manipulated so effectively.