The Rich Get Richer

Film 4 (365)

Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream

In New York City there are two Park Avenues. There's the one in Manhattan, where the largest concentration of Billionaires in the world are located, and there's the one in the Bronx north of the river where poverty is rampant. This film doesn't talk much about those north of the river. Instead it focuses one particular building. 740 Park.

The most intriguing part of this film for me was the metaphor one psychiatrist uses in the beginning. He asks us to imagine sitting down to a game of Monopoly. The catch? All the properties have already been bought up and houses/hotels built. It wouldn't take long and you're worse off than when you started.

This same psychiatrist did an experiment. He pitted two player against one another in Monopoly. After the throw of a dice one player is randomly selected to be the "wealthy" player. Every time the wealthy player crosses Go he gets $200, and he gets to role with two dice. The "poor" player is only given one dice and will receive only $100 for passing Go. He also starts with half as much money.

This part had nothing to do with which player would win first. Instead the psychiatrist had a camera trained on both players to study their behavior. In every case the randomly selected "wealthy" player started to act entitled. The wealthy players even ate more pretzels out of the bowl sitting at equal distance away from both of them.

What I'm about to say next might end a couple of my friendships (assuming they read this). Why? Because I have a couple of very wealthy friends via NYU. What I've noticed is that wealthy (I won't say rich) people do feel entitled to their wealth, even though most of the people I know did nothing to accumulate that wealth. It was earned by their parents or grandparents.

One particular person has said, "It's not our fault we're rich," when she felt she was being attacked for her status. She was responding to a professor who asked, "Can anyone afford to pay an actor $1,000?" To her that was an attack, but that's for a shrink to analyze.

Another friend will act as if she has no money (she's worth millions), another trait I find true of most wealthy friends (I use the term friends loosely). The wealthier you are the more suspicious you become of everyone and tighter you hold your cash. Never ask to borrow a dollar from a rich person. They'll want your soul in return or be very offended because they think you're asking because you know they have money.

A screenshot from Park Avenue shows in 2010 the 400 richest Americans
controlled more money than the other 150 million.

Moving on. The latter half of the film focuses on how these 400 richest people have rigged the game in their favor. When politicians need money they go to 740 Park and usually walk out with a hefty check. Now if I can't borrow a dollar without owing something in return, what's it like borrowing millions for my campaign? This isn't conspiracy, it's business, and it's true.

Lastly there's the issue of Ayn Rand's theories in popular political culture of today. Keep in mind that Ayn Rand was dismissed as a radical in her day. If you don't know, Ayn Rand believed in a system where government did not interfere with the private sector at all. They would be given a blank check to do whatever they wanted and the free market will always go for the person with best business practices. She also believed there should be no public anything. All libraries, roads, health services, hospitals and prisons should be privatized.

Some of you might agree with that. Let me tell you why I don't. I'll use one example and that's prisons. When you have a privatized anything it exists solely to make a profit. So a prison out to make money needs what? Prisoners! We have a lot of privately owned prisons in America today, and plenty of other documentaries and news programs covering the corruption going on to keep them full. One judge was convicted in 2011 for convicting kids to juvenile hall for cash in return. You can read about it here at the NY Times website.

What disturbs me most is the collective acceptance of Rand's theories by conservatives. Rand was Russian-American and a strict atheist, no doubt from her life in Russia and the many revolutions she experienced and participated in. So why do secular American Christians accept her opposing view points? Rand's book Atlas Shrugged paints an apocalyptic picture of the future where all the rich people band together and leave to the mountains after us 99% to fend for ourselves. Apparently we're not good at running anything without them. 

Personally I don't call that an apocalypse, I call that a miracle.

You can watch Park Avenue now on Hulu.

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