Maxed Out

You cannot pick up the paper these days without seeing another story of how the middle class is disappearing. Soon, we will fit in two categories - "rich" and "barely making it." One of the big problems has been the ease with with credit is given and the hole people fall into when they take advantage of easy credit.

This film shows that the credit companies actually want those who are just getting by to use their cards because they make a killing on late fees and higher interest. They don't want to prevent bankruptcies, because they can get you hooked again as soon as you file. The predatory practices of the mortgage lenders is also displayed.

What was not a surprise was the revelation that a member of the current administration was an executive in a credit card company that was fined huge amounts for stealing from customers, and the fact that the largest campaign contributor in the 2004 election was the banking institution that coincidentally co-authored a bill that made it harder for middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy.

If you use credit, and we all do, then you really need to see this.

Extremely powerful message. Particularly the fact that credit card companies make most of their money from the people who really shouldn't have credit cards. The young and the poor who when they can't meet minimum repayments are socked with extra fees and penalty interest.

Should be shown in all high schools and colleges as a warning to the vulnerable. However given the power of the credit card company political lobby groups, this film will probably get minimal distribution and disappear.

This would be unfortunate as the message here is communicated in a clear and entertaining style.

I can think of no better day than today to review this excellent documentary. You see, today is the day after Thanksgiving 2008; what many call "Black Friday." It is the day many of us sink further into debt buying crap our friends and family probably don't need nor want. Couple that with a destabilizing economy and you've got serious issues to think about. The question we need to ask ourselves is "why?" Why do we feel the need to spend more than we make (or may ever make)? The tough answer is here in MAXED OUT, writer/director James D. Scurlock's first feature length documentary.

I think many of us know the answer but simply refuse to acknowledge it: we want to keep up with the Jones'. They have a new car, we need a new car. They have a new washer/dryer, we need a new one. It is a cycle being perpetuated by the credit industry and we, the consumers, have been drawn to it like moths to a flamethrower.

Maxed Out gives us insights that should make one angry and fearful. Predatory lenders like MBNA, Capitol One, and other credit card companies target those that are least likely to be able to afford credit. Why? Because these are the people who max out their cards then pay the minimum monthly amounts until ...either bankrupt or death do them part. It's a marriage made in Hell and it continues to this day. College students who enter a new campus are likely to find tables set up near their dorms offering sign ups for new credit cards. Why? Again, because they can't afford it (sadly these are the people who end up in the worst situations, often dangling from their necks in dorm room closets).

Add to this fact that we are now in the worst financial/debt crisis in U.S. history (end of 2008) and is there any wonder why? George Bush and his buddies at MBNA passed a new law that puts tighter restrictions on filing for bankruptcy, making those who really need assistance the least likely to get it (but it's okay to spend 700 billion taxpayer dollars to bail out banks that caused this debacle). Heinous. And do the credit card companies have to answer to anyone? Morally or ethically? Not that I've seen.

This is a documentary well worth your while. And at a quick 89 minutes, it won't eat up a lot of your precious time ...like those credit card bills will.

It's a well known fact that Americans are among the most consumer-oriented and debt-ridden people on the planet. It's perhaps less well known that banks and credit card companies actually make their largest profits by extending mass amounts of credit to the very people who can least afford to be in debt. By finally exposing this ironic truth to the light of day, the documentary "Maxed Out" aims to hold the powers-that-be accountable for their actions.

James D. Scurlock, the writer and director of the film, brings us one heartbreaking story after another about ordinary average citizens who have fallen victim to this consumer-credit nightmare. Some are struggling working-class folk who were scammed by debt-consolidation lenders into believing that they would be paying lower interest rates and payments on their loans, only to discover that their new rates and payments were, in reality, astronomically higher. Others are 18 year-old college students, who, it turns out, are prime targets for credit card companies who see these "bad risks" as gold stars in their corporate profit ledgers. Lending institutions also go after people who have previously filed for bankruptcy, knowing that such individuals are not only spending-prone by nature but legally unable to file for bankruptcy a second time. Scurlock also interviews debt-collectors who seem all but indifferent to the plight of those they are going after, as well as more humanistic economists who understand completely the depth of the problem.

Perhaps the most damning criticism is leveled at politicians like George W. Bush and the members of Congress who passed the ironically named Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, making it much harder for the average American to escape his consumer debt burden and much easier for irresponsible creditors to hound their debtors sometimes literally to death, a point Scurlock brings home when he interviews people whose loved ones have committed suicide as a result of their financial and debt-related woes. Yet, ironically, the film also shows the flippant attitude government officials seem to adopt regarding the nation's own debt situation as trillions of dollars of red ink spill unimpeded across the nation's treasury.

In terms of style, "Maxed Out" lacks the pizazz and showmanship of a Michael Moore expose, but Scurlock's single-minded passion still shines through loud and clear. This is a fairly straightforward talking-heads documentary that cuts to the heart of the problem with compassion and precision. The director does provide some much needed levity, though, by showing us snippets of a very funny standup comedy routine on the subject by Louis C. K., as well as excerpts from a typically cheesy 1960 instructional short entitled "The Wise Use of Credit" (the DVD contains the full ten-minute version of the film in the "Extra Features" section).

"Maxed Out" is another in a long line of documentaries seemingly designed to make one feel insignificant and powerless in the face of hugely impersonal corporate forces. Yet, if knowledge itself is power, then movies like "Sicko," "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," "Maxed Out" etc. may, in their own small way, help lead to much-needed reform and change in the way the government and Big Business deal with the least of us in society. Let us hope that is the case.

The credit card companies have been maxing out people for decades. In this documentary, it looks at it's predatory lending policies especially towards college students on campus. The credit cards were always meant as a safety net or if you didn't have money. Some people used their credit cards as life support in emergency situations. Our financial situation in this country has further deteriorated since this documentary. You don't have to watch Michael Moore's film to see the situation's effect. Armed bank robbers are less deadly than the bank robbers in suits and ties who walk in on Wall Street. They may not have guns but they have the access and ability to destroy our economic situation far more than armed bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde etc. Bank robberies don't happen like that anymore. It's done on the internet or in the policy meetings. The people you meet in this documentary are real and authentic. Debt has driven people to commit suicide because of the harassing phone calls and letters threatening to take away. That's the bottom dollar. Are the creditors far more interested in driving people to commit suicide or lose their sanity than get the money? It's a shame that it's going on and that people will be in debt until their dead. It's a perverted kind of freedom to be in debt like having a noose around your neck and the debt gets bigger than smaller with rising interest rates, penalties, and no breaks. Whatever happened to compassion and mercy in this society?