We're on the descent from 20,000 feet in the air when the flight attendant leans over the elderly woman next to me and taps me on the shoulder.
"I'm listening to Lady Gaga," I say as I remove just one of the ear buds. I know not this Lady Gaga, but her performance last week on SNL was fascinating.
"The pilots would like to see you in the cockpit when we land," she says with a southern drawl.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No. They have something to show you." (The last time an employee of an airline wanted to show me something it was her written reprimand for eating an in-flight meal without paying for it. "Yes," she said, "we have to pay for our own meals on board now.")
The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. "Read this," the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined "LETTER OF CONCERN." It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one -- or else.
"Great," I said. "Just what I want -- you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket."
He then showed me his pay stub. He took home $405 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he's paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.
I told the guys that I have a whole section in my new movie about how pilots are treated (using pilots as only one example of how people's wages have been slashed and the middle class decimated). In the movie I interview a pilot for a major airline who made $17,000 last year. For four months he was eligible -- and received -- food stamps. Another pilot in the film has a second job as a dog walker.
"I have a second job!" the two pilots said in unison. One is a substitute teacher. The other works in a coffee shop. You know, maybe it's just me, but the two occupations whose workers shouldn't be humpin' a second job are brain surgeons and airline pilots. Call me crazy.
I told them about how Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger (the pilot who safely landed the jet in the Hudson River) had testified in Congress that no pilot he knows wants any of their children to become a pilot. Pilots, he said, are completely demoralized. He spoke of how his pay has been cut 40% and his own pension eliminated. Most of the TV news didn't cover his remarks and the congressmen quickly forgot them. They just wanted him to play the role of "HERO," but he was on a more important mission. He's in my movie.
"I hadn't heard anywhere that this stuff about the airlines is in this new movie," the pilot said.
"No, you wouldn't," I replied. "The press likes to talk about me, not the movie."
And it's true. I've been surprised (and slightly annoyed) that, with all that's been written and talked about Capitalism: A Love Story, very little attention has been paid the mind-blowing stuff in the film: pilots on food stamps, companies secretly taking out life insurance policies on employees and hoping they die young so the company can collect, judges getting kickbacks from the private prison industry for sending innocent people (kids) to be locked up. The profit motive -- it's a killer.
Especially when your pilot started his day at 6am working at the local Starbucks.
Arianna Huffington and Josette Sheeran: Sharing the Privilege of Abundance
The food, fuel, and financial crises have pushed the numbers of those enduring chronic hunger past one billion people for the first time in history. So as we enter the season of colossal Wall Street bonuses and a frenzy of holiday spending, it's time for us to share the privilege of plenty. It's time to declare, once and for all, that not a single child should die from hunger. This is an achievable goal. With $3.2 billion a year -- or $1.5 billion less than Americans spend on Halloween annually, and a fraction of America's $300 billion a year in private giving -- we can feed the 66 million children worldwide who go to school hungry. This alone won't end hunger, but it would be a huge step forward.
YouTube - TRAILER: Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story ...
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
Apple - Movie Trailers - Capitalism: a Love Story
'Capitalism: A Love Story' -- latimes.com
Capitalism: A Love Story Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
The problem is not capitalism per se. The problem is the form of capitalism practiced in the U.S.
Of course, I'd take Swedish socialism anyday, but that's another story.
with dementia, and is on Medicaid). EVERY penny from the mobile
home will go to Medicaid ( the state, and Feds). She NEVER used a
credit card, and gave regularly to the Disabled Vets. She lived through
the Depression, and now it's come full-circle-again, where, in her
case, she loses everything again. Money is run by SELF-INTEREST,
whether by the Government or Corporate entities. The Government
has alwatys be in-bed with Corporate America. Thank You Michael Moore
and Elisabeth Warren for shedding some light.
I was a flight instructor for 12 years. If someone wants to learn to fly so he can take his family to fun places like Nantucket, I am FOR it!! The memories of flying for fun are some of the best treasures in my life. But I would NEVER want my children to chase after the "airline pilot dream."
I have DRIVEN to avoid taking commuter flights. I trust myself behind the wheel over some kid who has to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. On a trip to Key West, I landed in FLL aboard a big plane, and DROVE the rest of the way rather than taking a commuter flight. I hope to go to Montana to visit cousins soon. I will land in Spokane via a major carrier and DRIVE five hours the rest of the way. Commuter airlines--NO THANKS!!!
At some point, those at the top need to see that they are destroying this country. If they continue to refuse to share their great wealth, how will their businesses survive? Those who are clients will not be able to afford their products/services and eventually they will go out of business. But, if they pay employees a fair wage and stop taking huge salaries/bonuses for themselves - Americans will be able to travel and take vacations.
Too many people don't see how their choices impact one another...or themselves - in the long run.
That $49 flight from NYC to Chicago comes with a very significant price attached, namely to the employees at the airlines, including the pilots, who are grossly underpaid for the services they provide.
If you don’t play canasta with the Bilderberg (clan), or reside under Gibraltar it is easy to see the truth in this film.
Job well done, thank you for giving so many people, who have so little, the VOICE that they NEED in a World that has grown So COLD...
Thanks,
-PRHarrison
When I was getting my bagel this morning a woman, who worked at the Chase bank branch a few doors down, was talking about the outrageous bonus of the Wall Street banks, including the one she works for. She mentioned $30 billion to the one bank, which just happened to coincide with the amount of the bonuses, and I said from our hands to theirs.
On Long Island you don't always hear this kind of anger.
Pilots with second jobs? The last thing I want is a worn out doctor operating on me or a worn out pilot flying me across the country.