Two American Families
“Two American Families”
The PBS Frontline documentary “Two American Families”, produced by Bill Moyers, follows two middle class families in Milwaukie, one black and one white, for over a decade as they struggle to achieve the “American Dream”. This documentary mirrors the struggle of so many American families who work hard and play by the rules, yet fall victim in a struggling economy to a series of policy decisions made. The hand of policy ineffectively steered the lives of the two families featured, the Neumann’s and Stanley’s, despite their hard work ethic and sincere determination to succeed. Many policy implications played a role in the documentary, including those around education, institutional racism, taxation, overseas jobs and social security. Other policy implications in the film that I will go into in more detail are minimum wage, health care, the foreclosure crisis, and debt dependency.
Minimum Wage
The most obvious policy implication affecting both families dramatically is the policy around minimum wage. Minimum wage was first enacted in the 1930’s after the Great Depression when the country realized that putting a floor on the minimum wage was vital to protecting workers, especially those with less desirable jobs. One problem is the federal minimum wage is still a poverty level wage that cannot meet the demands of fluctuation and ongoing rise in cost of living. As exemplified in both case stories, when the economy suffers and unemployment is high, workers are forced to take low wage jobs. Employers can afford to keep the minimum wage low because they know that workers have no other job. In order to help American families achieve a higher sense of financial security, the minimum wage needs to be increased so workers in the lower paying jobs can afford to live and meet their needs. Republicans believe that increasing the minimum wage would actually increase unemployment because businesses could not afford to hire workers. Many
The PBS Frontline documentary “Two American Families”, produced by Bill Moyers, follows two middle class families in Milwaukie, one black and one white, for over a decade as they struggle to achieve the “American Dream”. This documentary mirrors the struggle of so many American families who work hard and play by the rules, yet fall victim in a struggling economy to a series of policy decisions made. The hand of policy ineffectively steered the lives of the two families featured, the Neumann’s and Stanley’s, despite their hard work ethic and sincere determination to succeed. Many policy implications played a role in the documentary, including those around education, institutional racism, taxation, overseas jobs and social security. Other policy implications in the film that I will go into in more detail are minimum wage, health care, the foreclosure crisis, and debt dependency.
Minimum Wage
The most obvious policy implication affecting both families dramatically is the policy around minimum wage. Minimum wage was first enacted in the 1930’s after the Great Depression when the country realized that putting a floor on the minimum wage was vital to protecting workers, especially those with less desirable jobs. One problem is the federal minimum wage is still a poverty level wage that cannot meet the demands of fluctuation and ongoing rise in cost of living. As exemplified in both case stories, when the economy suffers and unemployment is high, workers are forced to take low wage jobs. Employers can afford to keep the minimum wage low because they know that workers have no other job. In order to help American families achieve a higher sense of financial security, the minimum wage needs to be increased so workers in the lower paying jobs can afford to live and meet their needs. Republicans believe that increasing the minimum wage would actually increase unemployment because businesses could not afford to hire workers. Many