rent or mortgage payments on their trailers. And
people get shocked when they read this and
shocked when they realize so many people are
living so far below the poverty line. They watch
a special on Oprah or read an essay on the lower
class poverty and they are shocked. I’m just
curious about why they would read books and
magazines and not doing anything to help?
Some people do. The point is in the film, one of
the two characters is hoping to become a savior of
his fellow men. And there is that impulse. You have
to remember that Americans give enormous sums of
money in philanthropic enterprises. You can look up
the number but it’s many millions of dollars a year.
There’s 17,000 philanthropic foundations in the US
and big projects – the best hospitals in the country
are built with private money. That’s kind of in the
American spirit of volunteerism and again that’s part
of the democratic idea also, that is based on some
sort of civic virtue that taking care of one’s, or at least
giving a helping hand to one’s, fellow citizens. That’s
part of the American idea too and there are a lot of
people who care about people less fortunate than
themselves. I mean Bill Gates gives something like
$25billion dollars for the most basic media and
clear water in Africa.
But in their own hometown… such as with the
private hospitals you’re talking about, can anyone
walk into them?
No, no. I mean no, they get billed for that. In order
to have access to…uh…anyone can walk into the
emergency room but in order to pay for the high-
end medical care it’s expensive in the United States
and this is one of the problems we’re having with the
question ‘do we extend single pay or health insurance
to the American public or don’t we?’ This is in effect
one of the things that keeps coming up in the
Presidential campaigns and it will be in question
in this year’s election. What is your health plan,
the candidates will be asked. Who pays for the,
you know, the best medicine that money can buy.
I saw one of the US news channels and all the
candidates were asked if they would work for
minimum wage and they all say ‘yes yes’ and I
think it was Obama that said ‘well of course we
could work for min wage for a year because we all
have enough money in the bank to keep us going.’
Do you believe in the idea of a service class?
I don’t understand the term – what do you mean
‘service class.’
I think in your film when Barbara was saying to
the Yale student, in the diner scene ‘these people
work so hard behind the scenes to provide a
service to you that you just take for granted.’
Yeah sure that is taken for granted. It’s human
nature. That would have been taken for granted by –
that was George Orwell’s point in his book Down
and Out in Paris and London. It would have been
understood by people in ancient Rome, understood
by people in 18th century France, certainly
understood by people in 18th century London.
People of means tend not to ask where their diners
Top, Morning on Wall Street, New York
Below, The drivers awaiting their
passengers among a sea of black steel
Previous spread, Behind the New York
Stock Exchange Building
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