| The
Business of America...
The film contrasts two Pittsburgh steelworkers conventional faith in private enterprise with the actual strategies and priorities of a giant corporation, U.S. Steel. It traces their growing realization that despite "supply side" business claims, increased profits don't necessarily "trickle down" to working Americans. To discover why, The Business of America... interviews U.S. Steel chairman David Roderick, travels to Wall Street and visits Harvard Business School. The film reveals that shareholder pressures to increase profitability have led many American firms to transform themselves from manufacturing enterprises into financial conglomerates. It raises troubling questions about whether the prevailing emphasis on short-term profits provides for the long-term investments industries--and the country--need to provide economic opportunities to all Americans. The urgency of these concerns has made The Business of America... a standard audio-visual "text" in many economics, sociology, management, labor studies, and business ethics courses. |
"An impressive,
compelling tour through the new industrial wasteland. This film deserves
a wide--and responsive-- audience." "The Business
of America... goes to the heart and soul of the American Dream...It
is an important contribution to the debate about the future of capitalism." "One of the
most thought-provoking documentaries of the year. Neither government,
industry nor the average American can afford to ignore it." "A powerful
documentary... makes personal many abstract economic issues while raising
important questions about the nation's industrial decline." "A compelling
and insightful chronicle of America's deindustrialization."
Video
Purchase: $195
|
The
Business of America... is the first film to probe one of
our most treasured economic assumptions: that private corporations can
be trusted to make the investments upon which all American's depend.
