WUNRN
A look at how global economic changes are destroying the lives and livelihoods of hardworking Americans.
Two American
Families - Sensitive Documentary Film
Reality Check on
the Crises & The Fading American Dream
Since
1992, Bill Moyers of US Public Television PBS, has been following the story of
these two middle-class families in the Midwest US— one black, one white — as
they battle to keep from sliding into poverty.
A
remarkable portrait of perseverance in the face of factory shutdowns and
job loss, Two American Families, which first aired in the
UN on Frontline, on July 9, 2013. Two American Families follows them over the
years, their hopes and ideals challenged, and raises unsettling questions
about the changing nature of the United States. economy and the fate of a
declining middle class.
The Stanleys and Neumanns were first featured in Minimum Wages: The New Economy in 1990. They were revisited in 1995 in Living on the Edge, and again in the 2000 documentary Surviving the Good Times. The latest is Two American Families (click above).
Relying on the belief that hard work is the key to a good living and better life, the Stanleys and the Neumanns, like millions of others, went about pursuing the American dream. But as they found other jobs, got re-trained, and worked any time and overtime, they still found themselves on a downward slope, working harder and longer for less pay and fewer benefits, facing devastating challenges and difficult choices.
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