Roger And Me Analysis

In the film Roger and Me, Michael Moore tells the story of the exploitation of the numerous workers in his hometown, Flint, Michigan. He follows the numerous employees of General Motors who have lost their jobs and consequently, tries to contact the power steering CEO of General Motors, Roger Smith. Smith closed down a large amount of the auto plants in Flint causing thousands of workers to be unemployed. Moore makes an attempt at demonstrating to Smith the harsh reality of the demise of Moore’s childhood surroundings caused by Smith’s his actions towards the people of Flint. The structure of society that results from Smith’s profitable actions and his refusal to accept this harsh reality proves his lack of empathy for those beneath him economically.
These societies have a diverse quantity of income, assets, and wealth, mainly weighing more towards the higher class and against the lower class. These more powerful, higher social groups, such the General Motors Company in the film, utilize their authority and control in order to take advantage of and abuse those groups with lower influences and lower dominance. At the end of the documentary, Moore closes with the statement, “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.” This statement correctly parallels with Marx’s broad view of society and more specifically with the society of Flint at the time of the occurrence of the downsizing of jobs by General Motors and Smith. As conflict theorists would argue, Smith advantageously misuses his abilities as CEO of the large company to evacuate the tremendous amounts of factory workers of their jobs because of the inexpensive labor found in Mexico. Although the company is acquiring high amounts of earning and profit, by targeting labor forces outside of the country, the cost of labor can be further minimized, and the profit can be additionally heightened. The notion of lowering expenses directly caused the closing of the numerous auto plants in Flint and other towns and further reinforced the inequalities that exist in
The disparity between social classes evidently produces an assortment of reactions. Manifestly, the upper class residents show lack of sympathy for the working class factory employees. Downsizing does not affect the wealthy and therefore, they are not concerned with the happenings of the town. As Moore states, the wealthy are becoming wealthier and their sole remark to the less fortunate is that they are to blame for their own shortcomings. Although the higher class community believes that the groups of people in poverty are in that state because of faults they possess, the conflict theory advocates it becomes increasingly difficult for those with lesser wealth to overcome obstacles. When such obstacles arise, people forget morals and ethics and do what is best for their needs. This loss of values and principles causes crime rates to hit record highs. The strive for achievement of survival greatly outweighs the corrupt path that leads them out of defeat. Flint soon experiences economic and social chaos. The elite pay no heed to the necessity of others. Furthermore, their lack of disturbance over the matter reinforces the conflict