Maxed Out (2005)

A wasted opportunity

I am a huge fan of documentaries and sample as many as I can. The credit card industry makes for a perfect subject as there are so much abuse from both its users and its issuers so I was hoping that the documentary would not limit its to the sleazy practices of the credit industry and how government has not done much to keep these people in check. That story has been told many times yet the angle that would have made it more interesting is how we as consumers fall prey to our own greed, entitlement, and how some really good people who can't make ends meet also can fall prey to a gangster-like industry.

But our accountability is thrown out the window and bulk of the documentary tries to expose a known sleaziness and in my opinion those telling the tale resort to exploiting their subjects in a very heavy-handed matter. Did they have to talk to resort to milking tears from mothers who lost their children to suicide when the kids could not keep up with payments? A missing woman is used for similar purposes as are the mother of a developmentally challenged man, and a war veteran. The documentary also uses a cheap propaganda film from archives for maximum snarkiness and takes pot shots at some many people, including some who have done some pretty good things when it comes to training people not to live beyond their means.

I knew that it would not be a good documentary when I started looking at my watch within the first half-hour. The documentary beat the same drums over and over again with a documentary by the numbers check-list that I assume has or would make a great 20 minute story for a show like 60 Minutes. Even the title is deceptive as I was expecting to see a documentary of the misuse of credit and how the industry preys on those who do the worst job of managing it. They are sleazy, but what's the message here? Pointing fingers is easy, but what about us? I am a bleeding heart Democrat so it's not about politics nor being clueless about how hard it for our population to get by. Better luck next time. June 18, 2008

A sobering look at the evils of debt, with solutions

Maxed Out (2006)

This film should be required viewing for anyone over the age of 18. Because that's the target age that credit card companies go after.

The chief culprits identified in this film are MBNA, one of the nation's largest credit card companies, major contributor to the George W. Bush campaign, and writer/sponsor of the revised bankruptcy law that Bush pushed through in 2005; Providian, a credit card company that targets the poor, mentally handicapped, and willfully waited to cash payment checks so overdraft fees could be charged to their customers, and also in bed with Bush (he appointed the head of Providian to his Ethics Committee on Fair Lending); Wells Fargo, which owns most of the country's cash advance stores where they charge more interest than pawn shops (shocking, isn't it?); and Republicans who continue to push the idea that bankruptcy is bad and to be an American you must pay your debt the old-fashioned way--hard work. Unfortunately, when credit card companies wrack up $[...] in fees for every $[...] you owe, that's never going to be possible.

I loved that this film addressed so many different ways people get into debt. One woman starts using her credit card to pay her mortgage after her husband dies because she can no longer afford her house, but doesn't want to move because it holds so many memories. Two women discuss their teenage daughter and son, who both killed themselves during their sophomore years of college because they ran up credit card bills in excess of $12,000. I think that's the most tragic--a life ended for just $12,000. Another woman's 40 year-old mentally challenged son signs a credit card application and wracks up astronomical debt just in fees (because he didn't understand what he signed and his mother didn't know about it). Another couple discusses their mother who killed herself because she had wracked up over $47,000 in credit card bills and didn't know how to pay them. Another young man was a fireman sent to Iraq, where he was paid next to nothing. His family used credit to pay their mortgage and food, that's all. But when he came back, Bush had changed the bankruptcy laws, so he couldn't even do that.

There's a point in this film where an analyst describes it as DEBT SLAVERY and compares it to the old sharecropping system of the post-Civil War era. We're all slaves now, though, but that's a pretty good assessment of the wide gap between the haves and have-nots in our country.

Just as in the Enron film, there are young yuppies in this one bragging about how they collect personal information from people they call about their bills and then use that info to get them into more and more debt. Frightening how completely immoral these young men are. Some of them not so young. I imagine them in Dante's seventh layer of hell (or was it the sixth?).

Unlike some of the other reviewers, who say this film gives no solutions, it actually does.
1. Read what you sign BEFORE you sign it. If you're unsure about any part, don't sign it.
2. Don't get cash advances. If you must borrow, do it from a friend or relative and stop buying things.
3. Don't bank at Wells Fargo, a major culprit in charging excessive fees. They also own most of the cash advance companies in the U.S.
4. Don't be afraid to declare bankruptcy and write to legislators to get the bankruptcy restraints reversed. It's frightening how many people commit suicide because they don't know how to pay their debts; and most of those debts are 90% fees and interest charges, not principal.
5. Get help from Americans for Fairness in Lending at [...]
6. Don't kill yourself. There's always a solution if you know where to look. (Sad that I would ever have to put that in a review.)
June 17, 2008

Another great documentary with no solutions

Information is knowledge. When it is revealed to the public many of the corporate practices, many of us get it. We can no longer make bad choices without referring back to our conscious that reminds us "we were warned". I would only hope that one day we get smart people to do documentaries in Part 1 of 2 and followed by a Part 2 for a solution. June 15, 2008

Debt

Debt, particularly credit card debt, is the modern version of sharecropping, which replaced slavery. The beauty of sharecropping, from the landowner's point of view, was that labor was much cheaper. Slaves had to be housed and fed; sharecroppers didn't. And with sharecropping, white people could be owned as well as black people.

The best kind of slavery, again from the "slaveholder's' point of view is invisible slavery. The "slaves" don't even know they are slaves, therefore they don't rebel.

The slick marketers of debt, like predators in nature, prey on the most vulnerable; the young, the old, the unsophisticated, and the desperate. It is a conspiracy between the debt marketers, the government, and the colleges and universities. The American school system does not teach the dangers of debt, or how to avoid the trap.

Buy "Maxed Out" in both forms: book and video. And share them. June 7, 2008

great

this movie is very good and will show you many of the truths behind the way credit companies work.I wish every one would watch this movie and then get all of their friends and family to watch it as well. May 21, 2008

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