Meet King Joe | 1949 | Cold War Era American Propaganda Cartoon
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This 1949 Technicolor cartoon is a Cold War-era propaganda film aimed at American workers with the objective of convincing them of their good fortune. It shows us the life of a common working man in America, and how he is able to achieve financial success for himself thanks to investment, competition, research, and technology.
Joe, an average American working man who, wears overalls and talks with a pseudo-Brooklyn accent, is "king of the workers of the world" not because he is worthy, but because the machinery in his factory "multiplies strength and efficiency." We also learn that Joe is "king" not because he can exert power over anything, but because "he can buy more with his wages than any other worker on the globe."
We gets a nicely illustrated introduction to then-standard basic economic theories of production and investment that "make the United States the industrial master of the world”. As proof that the American capitalist system is the most wonderful on earth, the narrator informs us that Americans own 72% of the cars in the world, 92% of the bathtubs, and "practically all the refrigerators in existence." The narrator sums up the attitude industrial America was pushing: "Labor and management must continue to increase the production of better goods at lower prices so that more people will be able to buy the things that make life easier and happier for all of us."
The cartoon is a John Sutherland production. It is one of the "fun and facts about America" series, made "to create a deeper understanding of what has made America the finest place in the world to live."
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / CONTEXT
The Cold War (1947-1991) was in many respects a struggle for the hearts and minds of people everywhere. That competition was carried out through massive American and Soviet propaganda campaigns to isolate the respective opponent internationally, win the approval of world opinion, and consolidate the own sphere of influence. Every opportunity from art exhibits to international sports events, and every medium from radio to television, was used to fight the propaganda war.
During the Cold War, films functioned as a means to influence and control public opinion internally. The United States and the Soviet Union invested heavily in propaganda designed to influence the hearts and minds of people around the world, especially using motion pictures. Cold War films produced by both sides attempted to address different facets of the superpower conflict and sought to influence both domestic and foreign opinion. The gap between American and Soviet film gave the Americans a distinct advantage over the Soviet Union; America was readily prepared to utilize their cinematic achievements as a way to effectively impact the public opinion in a way the Soviet Union could not. Cinema, Americans hoped, would help close the gap caused by Soviet development of nuclear weapons and advancements in space technology. The use of film as an effective form of widespread propaganda transformed cinema into another Cold War battlefront.
American films incorporated a wide scale of Cold War themes and issues into all genres of film, which gave American motion pictures a particular lead over Soviet film. Despite the audiences' lack of zeal for Anti-Communist/Cold War related cinema, the films produced evidently did serve as successful propaganda in both America and the USSR. The films released during this time received a response from the Soviet Union, which subsequently released its own array of films to combat the depiction of the Communist threat.
Television and advertising played key roles in constructing the image of an ideal American way of life. American propaganda functioned to shore up support and national pride by projecting an image of prosperity, freedom and strength. In many ways, however, these images were fantasy. They contrasted and conflicted with many American's real life.
Meet King Joe | 1949 | Cold War Era American Propaganda Cartoon
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@anna crime It is propaganda he can’t afford that crown
A trick : watch movies on flixzone. Been using them for watching lots of of movies lately.
@Gianni Decker Yup, been using Flixzone for years myself :D
WoW! Brainwashing or what!
Does anyone know the name of the narrator?
Joe's children would continue to use Joe's tools until the factory got shut down in 1983. Joe's grandchild would take Joe's crown to the pawn shop in 2007. The investor's son, who had gotten very wealthy from investing his dividends in the financial industry instead of new tools, would buy Joe's crown from the pawn shop and it give to his new Chinese business partner in 2010. Joe's grandchild would have thirteen different entry level jobs during his fifteen years of adulthood and die childless of fentanyl overdose in 2018.
well said comrade
That's kinda sad ngl
damn
Still beats socialism
@@AgentSmith911 Yeah. To hell with Social Security and Medicare, eh bub!
Back when blue collar workers doing menial repetitive work could afford a house.
They easily could if they lived alone. Even back in the late 1800s. It's when you get stupid and have 13 dependents.
free market capitalism sending the jobs oversees and brings in immigrants to work for less wages and compete with labor because it lines shareholders profits is what fucked everything up. blame neoliberalism. we are all living in a hell world that is only going to get worse.
White collar jobs and service industry replaced blue collar where you can buy Chinese made equivilant at or near equal quality for much, much less. Even your iPhone owning commie Starbucks Barista own a pocket sized computerized radio that can send or recieve film and audio recordings, mail messages, and other amazing things.
Globalization and Trade is good for everyone. It's how the third world is developing it's capital and how America gets cheaper goods. What we're looking at is a skills gap of problems between technical jobs that require filling and need to share the expanding pie for those displaced communities that can't sell their labor due to becoming obsolete.
@@jamesmueller1921 OK BOOMER
@@jamesmueller1921 shut the fuck up
1949: Get a house with no education
2022: Ability to live in a rental if you have a university degree
My idiot grandfather had it made in the shade.
@@hipoint40cal39 Obviously idiots run in the family.
@@hipoint40cal39 same, I thought they cared but there the biggest scums
This used to be a good place to live. Those days are gone...
@@blacktara3936It never was, It Always was bursts of short term gains with no regard for consequences, most of the times evewrything Just enriched specific groups of people screwing over the rest
Imagine being able to simply get a job, not always think you could be fired / laid off in the next 5 minutes, and then actually pay your bills. GOD how things have changed.
Being able to get laid off is a form of freedom.
To be fair, joes generation was one of the wealthiest ones in human history
true they had a smaller inequality gap too, u could live broke-free without needing a high school diploma.
Well, to be fair, the "Worker pool" was about half as much back then, so wages were higher proportionally
this is because the Americans made a lot of money in World War 2
@@highwatercircutrider the. You will be paying $11 for a salad who do you think licks all the crops ???
It’s the same in Amanda, we use migrant workers to work on farms
Also Joe’s generation; they ruin it all by removing the one thing that made them great! Regulation
"This machine can increase productivity so that you, the worker, can make more money"
Uh oh.
Man if only the capitalists would use the profit from using automation to increase worker conditions instead of pocketing the profits
BRRRRRT
"""""You, the worker""""" can make more money
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 I see his majest is fond of Levi's jeans!
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 you have to remember this was at a time where wealth and international influence had just risen due to a working spirit and huge industrialization on the americans part. we went from giant depression to wealthiest by far within 5 years. its no wonder people were so optimistic about capitalism and investment because at the time it was working without flaw. nowadays its working alright but issues have arisen with globalization and china rising to industrial power.
"Is that a television?" "No, it's a time machine" - then it actually just becomes a television lmao
It took a few more decades for Doc Brown to upgrade a time machine into a car.
To the paaaaaaaast
More like a time viewer
Maybe he was being sarcastic. Was sarcasm really widely used in these sorts of films back then?
Working more than 60 hours back then was considered barbaric. We truly have come full circle
i work 72
@@MasterXcon Congrats
Some of my friends are 17 years old and are working about 8 to 10 hours on their work days while also trying to balance school :,/
@@AVI-lh6rm Not just the men, it's the women and the kids too. Can't make this up is this the modern world🤣
Um. Yeah, no.
This is not far off. My grandfather was a blue-collar worker and said that his paycheck would cover a week's worth of groceries, the rent, a carton of cigarettes, and still have money left over.
Hell, back in my father's days, some of his co-workers payed for college working at K-mart. Times have changed.
Damn fat cats then sold us out and made our money worthless all for the sake of some loser who’s got an imaginary stock in a business.
To be fair you can still do it today if you are in a low cost of living area. That's only like $18 an hour 40 hours a week. That's not incredibly hard to find for hard labor. If you work 60 hours it's only about $12 an hour and I have many friends from highschool doing that for a living.
it still can, depending on where you live. why do i always get the feeling these comments come from people who live in major cities or wealthy suburbs and would never consider moving to a cheaper area, with cheaper taxes and interest rates?
oh right, cuz these videos appeal to 20 somethings and champagne socialist🙄
i make more now working a night cleaning job than i did running a lab at a college. try looking around d actually planning/ changing careers if you aren’t living how you want. cuz seriously, right now i can afford all the things you just mentioned. (tho i dont smoke anymore). quit insinuating that your crummy life is everyone else fault.
@@gabemerritt3139 60 hours a week Blue-collar job? Sure bro
What a dream. Being an assembly line worker and being payed a fair wage. Sadly not like that anymore.
It was never like that
@@Paradoxe44 Damn it
The promise of capital was always "more productivity and less work" ... whatever happened to the second part?
@@anfrac3700 it was like that. I worked in a factory that has gone to mexico. All the old timers from the 60s and 70s used to talk about how they had so much money, they all have their docks on the water and cabins in the woods. Its pretty much gone but the boomers sold the nation out for just a little bit more
@@Paradoxe44 The only fair pay is all that the worker produces
I grew up the the prosperous 1950's & 60's. My mom stayed at home and took care of the kids and my dad's one job was enough for us to live comfortably. That's all gone now. The younger generation who probably look at the country now, probably think that this is the way it's always been. I'd like to show them how greed has twisted their country.
no we know what it was like.. I’m 21 and have to work 3x as hard in order to get the same lifestyle my grandparent did.. I really don’t wanna live in this world anymore let alone have children who will just hate me for not building a future for them.. fuck the boomers for all I care.. the most opportunity to build wealth..
*Update*
"It's called planned obsolescence Joe. We sell the public devices that are designed to break and then they have to replace them more frequently. That way we make more sales."
Like Apple?
"...also we make it illegal for you to repair or modify the devices you buy, even though you ostensibly own them! It's a wonderful cycle of profits! Oh, your pay? Well, it hasn't changed any since the 50's, but your work makes more value for your boss!"
@@KingBobXVI That's anti-capitalist though (making it illegal). Nowadays there are more restrictions of economic freedom. We have less capitalism.
And why don't people just buy the more lasting option? They put more things in the balance.
@@MrTomyCJ What if _every_ option lasts as long as every other? What then?
1:15 The funnies are on the page facing towards us, so presumably he is laughing at some atrocity or devastating accident typically shown on the front page of newspapers.
Bruh lol
I read furries
Sunday Funnies used to be their own section, they were printed in color. The daily funnies were usually on one page in black and white, read all over. The best funnies were on the inside cover (pg2)
I too.
Edit:about furries.
Based
Why does the narrator always sound the same
RGkong, why modern tv presenters soud the same?
RGkong back thrn, ppl respected or were more likrly to listrn to a confident man who smoked 3 packs of Lucky's per day
RGkong He is speaking in middle Atlantic standard, which used to be taught to us in school in an effort to unify American language. It didn't take and is no longer spoken. It was an artificial accent. At the time this was made, one had to speak it in order to get a job in broadcasting
That's actually a pretty good answer to a question I've had for my entire life, thank you
Malcolm Dixon Also found this interesting to know.
People in 1950: our kids will live in better world, Axis defeated, economy rising
In 1990: but our kids for sure will live in better world, Warsaw Pact finally defeated
In 2020: better we stay child-free
Americans have no one to blame but themselves
@@pancytryna9378 I love to blame the victims too. I'm not saying that it's actually their fault but it's just so fun, convenient and simple to blame them nonetheless.
@@SofaKingShit are you saying it's not the Americans who vote in American elections?
@@YamiKisara Do you want to say that the elections affect something? In America, it's a choice between conservative and progressive neoliberalism. No one will allow the coming to power of a force for which the interests of the rich will be closer than the interests of the poor.
@@Detricus Its more black and white than that
“What about the rich guy that does nothing while I do all the work?”
You won’t hear them say that on tv anymore.
To be fair, they just said : « oh Look, poor people too! ».
but who finances the politicians, the rich who do nothing or the poor who do nothing?
That is the whole point of being rich. You don't have to do shit.
What planet are you living on? That socialist talking point is said all the time. It is in this video not because it's true but because it's what you dummies say and the video wanted to counter it, which it did.
Yet from reading multiple comments where you people reference that line, it seems you don't even recognize you got schooled since you're so divorced from reason that you don't even see the clear logic used at all. The education system failed hard, and on purpose. It's an indoctrination system.
@@guilhemdejef Yeah it's better for everyone to be poor and the government elite to be the absolute monarchy of the people's republic.
@@demorvie The ability to take a month away from work is the ultimate luxury.
man, 1950s optimism was a hell of a thing.
Hell of a drug
1950s America was the richest country to ever exist. They owned more than half the worlds wealth at some point in the 50s. Europe was still recovering from ww2. The USSR, its satellite states, and allys like china and north korea were under communism. South East Asia was still poor and unstable at the time. As a result the smartest people from around the world traveled to america for a better life, so the US was siphoning intelligent people from around the world.
The US was in a position that no country had ever been in before. Its easy to see why there was so much optimism back then. Of course much of that optimism was misplaced. As other countries started catching up over the decades americans have slowly become poorer over time.
@@DavidLopez-rk6em yeah but it's still incredibly optimistic of them to think things were going to get BETTER
@@nepdisc3722 I mean if circumstances were different, it might've
They were right for about ten years
I like how they didn't point out that in 1949 workers in other countries were walking around in rubble.
they needed to bomb out the old world to build the new one. war used to be the best way to change society.
@@rc8770 im pretty sure that the series of wars that completely destroyed the entirerity of the Eurasian continent were not a good thing
@@felipedaiber2991 im right there with ya! i didnt say it was a good thing just that war is often used to change a society. i will say it was a good thing for ol king joe there for a few decades but thats over now.
well australia didn't become an economic power house over night, seeing things like 30 pound a month wages were pretty common their even in 1965.
Or mention unions which were really what gave us the 40 hour workweek, not industrialization which was underway _long_ before we got it.
"The history of our country proves that new inventions create thousands of new jobs for every one they displace."
That's the most antiquated line in the entire film.
Given the low unemployment rate, I'd say you're wrong.
Totally ignorant take, that's one of the things that most clearly stood right: now there's a whole lot more population, yet unemployment rate is lower or similar.
Watching this makes me feel like I am looking at a different country, and not the one I live in. Nearly a century on from this, and how different it all now is.
The part about China has changed. Now they are having all the production. 😮
@@Altinget Because we ship our machines to them and told everyone that financialization was the way of the future.
Because it is a different country: back then there were small towns with Main Streets with small businesses. Now the small businesses have been replaced by Walmart & Dollar General, the diners by McDonalds, and the Main Streets are boarded up & the people are all on drugs. Even 40-30 years ago is like another country compared to now.
The guy who made a chemical that could instantly melt through a house should be a trillionaire
U2oobfan : A brilliant contrarian proposition. One man's poison is another man's meat! Much of what they produced in the '50s was poison, and we're still trying to clean it up!
Like China now.
Somehow didn't melt through the glass.
Some fields of work would kill to have a solvent *that* efficient.
The US army would love to get there hands on that.
"True, there are rich people who contribute nothing....but there are poor people who contribute the same!" Nicely dodged, video...nicely dodged...
'it's hard to make money whilst contributing nothing in a free market.' - may have once been true, but modern capitalism is full of ways of making money by shuffling debt and imaginary money about, which is what contributed to the last crash. And the one before that.
This wasn't meant to start a debate, only to point out that the video completely dodged the question.
AlphaMikeOmega rent, property
you cannot possibly make a loss if you're willing to wait.
even jobs are returning to detroit, and the prices are going up again.
Exactly, poor people who contribute nothing have nothing to contribute. Often because of the rich people who contribute nothing.
Homeless people are clearly equal to rich people hording wealth.
King Joe regaled his grandchildren about how great working in a factory was. But his grandchildren were more amazed that it only took him a few minutes to get to Pakistan where all the factories are
I'd like to see them take that time machine to see what Joe's grandchild is doing.
Getting laid off lmfao
Replaced by AI
Trying on his first dress.
@@MonarchPoolPlaster
Then he is exposed by both parties, who want to kill him for different reasons. He doesn’t escape.
Drugs
I love how the narrator is just so matter of fact telling Joe that's a time machine.
And he just accepts it like "Oh yeah, I heard about those!"
I love how the Narrator is %75 wrong about everything he says but says it as if it's fact. What tf was that bit about the rich not giving anything? His justification to it is that the poor aren't giving anything either... wtf is that supposed to mean? Do the poor have things to give? I don't think the Narrator likes arguing with people his own intelligence. That's why he picked Joe to harass.
@@TheAllcreatorLiveArchives the argument was that there are douches on both sides on the economic spectrum. there are both rich and poor men who refuse to work, as the rich can live off their passive income and savings, and some poor people can live off the gratitude of others.
@@kaiiak04 Hey, don't blame the rich for his passive savings income. It is "an investment", haven't you heard!?
@@Nightingale1986 oh inheritance.
"A better job for more pay for less work." - The past, ladies and gentlemen.
You are still richer than your forefathers though they didnt have thing like cell phones
@@melvinklark4088 They also didn't have the level of inflation that we have today.
@R That’s because the multimillionaires outsourcing to China not giving the jobs to the workingman that’s why we need to be doing all her stuff here in America not paying for less work through legal immigrants and buying stuff from China we need to do stuff here in America
The pay didn't change much, but because it took less work to make something, prices fell. Ergo, while you weren't being paid more money, your spending power nevertheless increased.
@@enclave1165
Even if you stopped all economic outsourcing, that would in no way solve all of your problems. There’s more to economics than “them darn globalists and immigrants.”
What they don't mention is that Joe was in a Union that ensured he got paid more due to his productivity. In non union jobs, production may go up but wages don't reflect that.
Actually, the union will make sure he gets an increase in wages without more productivity, Prices need to go up to compensate, which makes inflation increase, which makes labor unions ask for more... Wages should be linked to productivity again; if you want to be paid more, produce more by working harder or learning more.
@@soundpreacherunions cannot greatly change the supply of money. If their actions do not somehow indirectly alter the demand for money, then they clearly cannot change the price of money. In other words, unions can't directly cause price inflation. By distorting relative prices and insisting on inefficient workplace rules, they certainly hamper the economy, no question about it. But it is wrong to blame unions for rising prices.
@@sky3_ow The Auto Workers Union is one of the largest. When they demand their people get more money, the cost of automobiles goes up. This affects the entire economy quickly. When other industries do the same, it all helps drive inflation. They are not the only cause, but they are serious contributors.
@@soundpreacher
Again it is not the workers' union that made the prices increase. In the act of demanding that the workers have a livable wage they threaten the profits of their higher ups, who then are the ones to increase the demand for money and cause inflation.
Wish people new the truth, ceo pay Trump's the laborer wages period. Cost of living should be common sense
According to this video, things are (were) so great because:
- Everyone has a high wage that allows them to buy stuff
- Short work hours to allow them to enjoy life and buy stuff
- Workers buying stuff creates more jobs for other workers because demand doesn't come from nowhere (woah!!!)
- Technology is there to create more jobs (woaah!) and drive down costs so the worker gets paid more (woaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!)
- Technology is meant to be shared with everyone
- Everyone should have capital and dividends from their labour
All those things people tell you are evil and wrong now.
They don't want you to be rewarded by a hard day's work, they want you rewarded for your compliance.
When Joe broke his back I automatically thought "oh boy here come the medical bills"
@@pedropradacarciofi2517 no, it was mostly non-profit.
@@slambrew3849 childrens hospitals were non profit commie, my grandfather was a doctor and new very well just how much money was to be made. new technology and innovations are what drive up costs and price fixing like they do in europe rarely works as places like russia and 90% of asia will show you if you look at their hospitals. if you ever traveled outside the u.s you would know how awful it is to experience needing non urgent care in these socialized systems. getting told that you are going to need to wait 14 days for care never happens in the u.s but it happens a lot in places like japan.
@@dominuslogik484 I’ve traveled plenty and you’re we todd ed
@@dominuslogik484 I'll bet you have never left the US. Public healthcare is better in every conceivable way. The most I have ever had to wait is a day, tops. And it's free of charge. A system in which people are more worried about being able to pay for getting their injuries fixed than the actual injuries themselves is a broken system.
@@henrikfitch4017 I have traveled to all over asia and europe, like I said before; had you ever left the u.s you would know the truth.
Actually, the post war economic boom was largely influenced by the fact that after WWII, the USA was one of the only industrialized nations that _hadn't_ been bombed to hell and back during the war. The other countries were simply too busy rebuilding, and our factories, which had been running at peak production during the war, kept on churning more stuff.
Oh, and of course this wasn't exactly unfettered laissez faire capitalism either.
Many seem to forget that the only other country that’s factories weren’t bombed to hell was the Soviet Union, which also became a super power, but then Leonid Brezhnev came along and removed major economic reforms made by Nikita Khrushchev and the Soviet economy slowly collapsed
@@S-Fan2006 err, you do know that the Soviet Union lost almost all of it's land through Ukraine, half the Caucasas and close to Moscow for about 1 and half years scorched Earth?
@@wrath_of_thrawn2163 You do know how the Soviets were able to push the Nazis back at the Battle of Stalingrad, right?
@@S-Fan2006 "the only other country that's factories weren't bombed to hell was the Soviet Union" ahahahahahahahahhahahahah, try reading a book......
@@BONK_2000 About the Soviets moving their factories to the east in WWII?
But Joe's grandpa was paid for each item he produced, rather than just being paid for his time. Grandpa had ownership over his labor
Joe, King of the workers of the world in 1949. I wonder how much of an advantage Joe had by simply existing in the one industrialized country that hadn’t been flattened less than a decade prior. I also wonder how Joe’s descendants view their lot in life now.
This is a great time capsule, I hope the workers of the world use this King as an example.
I love that they actually show a traffic jam with billboards blocking the scenery as they brag about automobile ownership. Kind of foreshadows the nightmare we've manufatctured for ourselves.
True also a lot of european cities are made in a way that you dont need a car so having a lot of them isn't necessarily a good thing.
Wild that a day old comment gets this many updoots from a five year old video
@@conradbrooks1760 its because youtube algorithm just put this video in a lot of peoples feed.
i know, not exactly making their case for a rich quality of life with the depiction of traffic jams, malfunctioning appliances, radio and phone interrupting the peace and a demanding wife who needs more and more useless crap
Upboats? I'm gonna VOOOOOT(e)
6:44 Ajax was an idiot, he developed an extremely powerful chemical that could be used in demolition or military even. But he went out of business anyways.
Being the only modern country not to be destroyed due to two world wars sure must have been nice.
Canada wasn’t destroyed, neither was Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland or Portugal. South America wasn’t destroyed either.
@@konstantinosnikolakakis8125 true.
I love how the narrator unironically said "he had to work 69 hours a week"
honestly thought 'joie the king of the workers' was going to be joseph stalin
You are right comrade
I guess you are not from the USA or have not been educated.
@@iosifstalin2000 King of Hunger stalin
Stalin didn’t do a day of honest work in his life
@@FreshWholeMilk in his youth he's busy with milking capitalists dry near Baku with threat of constant strike and sabotage, a mob boss.
There are two things this cartoon failed to mention.
First, consumers tended to be more conscientious in generations past. There was also this thing called 'brand loyalty' and people took it very seriously. If a company in those days outsourced their labor to another country, no loyal American would buy their products. Likewise, if a company (or one of it's senior management team) was involved in anything illegal or scandalous, consumers again would shut them down by way of boycott and letter-writing campaigns.
Second, labor unions were much more powerful back then, both in terms of political clout and in sheer numbers. Had it not been for the higher pay and shorter work weeks negotiated by union leaders, 'King Joe' wouldn't have had it any better than his granddad. Of course, this was when labor unions actually represented their constituencies and union members stood together. Sitting on the sidelines while a fellow union member got screwed by the company wasn't tolerated (likewise, union leaders who got caught taking kickbacks from management in exchange for letting worker grievances slide could expect to receive a serious beating before getting voted out).
The cartoon was written and produced in a time where those ideas were a given. They didn't foresee the corruption we now have to deal with today.
It warms my heart knowing that people can still spot nuances. 😊
Well, I’m sorry this kids cartoon didn’t explain 8th grade to high school level economics
And don't forget the whales so even if we did boycott it likely wouldn't matter
@@jareddembrun783 They must've forgotten the Gilded Age existed...
My dad averaged 70h/week...he's close to retirement now, living in a $20k trailer on a rented lot. Best job he had all those years actually paid well...150k or so, he setup a house on land he bought, then they fired him...replaced him with 2 children fresh out of business school. In this day, you can give 100%....what you'll get back is anyone's guess.
Just like the a-holes who took away my health insurance a month after Obama Care took off but they secured it for management and themselves.
Well, I guess King Joe has finally been dethroned...
ooo yes, by the so-called "Coolies". Racist MFS from the 40s, like damn I can't believe that was exceptional back then.
@Egg T "they have a long track record of being stable atleast compare to other nations that keep collapsing and waring" maybe now, but the track record shows china collapsing and uniting a whole lot.
@Egg T China isn't provocative? They're claiming both Indian and South China Sea territories and arming them with military bases.
@@orangeguy7760*acceptable
@@reviveempires hits the nail right on the head
And then came lobbying and outsourcing. Us giving corporations this much power was the equivalent of shooting ourselves in the foot
lobbying existed in the 50s, look out at 1953 Iran coup
Less a shot in the foot, more in the knee cap and elbow.
It wasn't so much giving corporations power as it was the government making it more difficult for business to be conducted in the U.S. All of the regulations naturally drive greedy corporations away.
@@blakemcnamara9105 Regulation is largely good for huge corporations. Corporations like Comcast lobby for strict, arbitrary regulations that make it impossible for competition to rise.
@@blakemcnamara9105 Strange how China has more regulations yet business is booming there. The reality is corporations want to make the most profit, they can make more profit by paying lower wages, and they can pay lower wages in places like China = more profit. Trump tried to change this balance with tarriffs but it didn't really work as American economic power is a small fraction of what it was in the 1950's, and so the Chinese factories just sold to other countries instead.
I'm lost for words. I honestly don't know what to say. The brutal honesty here tells us everything we need to know about how we ended up here.
It's like there is no fear of the dangers of complacency. It's like it's all saying:
"Trust us!"
Why do I feel like we're all going to die on this trajectory?
if you don't like it, move to north korea and see how you like it there.
With how efficient technology is now you’d think we’d have a 4 day work week or higher wages but instead we are just pushed to produce even more for the same pay and hours
oh right, China wasn't (fully) communist until later that year.
😂
Aqua
Useless self proclaimed Goddess
What's crazy to me is that in this cartoon China is shown as a rural hell hole, depicted as a man carrying gasoline on his back in contrast to an American worker transporting gasoline by cargo rail. China went fully communist later that year, 70 years later and now China is due to overtake the United States as the world's largest economy in the next few years and has a growing middle class as the American one disappears. One could infer that communism is actually the better system in the long run according to these facts.
@@frefer1386 with all due respect, IMO, China is not under communism system. Although they are communist party of China, what they’re doing is capitalism. You can see it from their population wealth-gap. Huge population and low-wage, this is the reason of their economic booming in past 30 years. As for the communism’s part, please check “ Great Leap Forward” in 1958 to 1960. This world is run by money and greed, always.
“Better goods at lower prices.” They never heard of “planned obsolescence.”
Oh, they heard of it but they were part of the system that invented it.
By 1949 the light bulb industry had already colluded to halt the progress in extending the lifetime of lightbulbs, thus ensuring repeat customers. Other industries caught on quickly.
Indeed, however this idea took quite awhile to bleed into other industries. Now I often say “everything is a lightbulb”, even a faucet I had to replace after only a year of service.
They were basically inventing it at that point
Wasn't a thing back then
“What about the lazy rich assholes?”
“Yes but homeless people exist too! Irrelevant numbers! Avoids the question entirely!”
“Sure there’s the 1% that does nothing but owns 99% of the money, BUT LOOK AT THE HOMELESS MAN INSTEAD PLEASE WE SWEAR CAPITALISM IS GOOD”
I think the most interesting thing about this video is that it’s entire philosophy centers around the idea that technology improves the efficiency of work and thus should allow workers to make more money, however with robotic drones now taking away unskilled labor jobs has lead to the degradation of wages and workers in general.
Real median income adjusted for purchasing power parity is much higher now than it was back in the 50s. The growth is even more drastic if you use a chain weighted index
It really depends on your educational attainment. Those with college degrees became even more productive while those without had to settle for low paying jobs.
Jobs come and go when you get advances in technology, it's why there are more lightbulb factories than candlemakers or car manufacteurs than horse breeders now.
@@theenchilada5290 it's been shown that there are less blue collar and entry level (no 'skills' needed) positions than there were 20 years ago but the overall population has ballooned.
How can you give all 1,000people a job when there are only 80 spaces to fill?
Technological advancement ought to be a nearly universal good for all of humanity. However, when these are kept from benefiting everyone it only furthers class divide.
The studio who made this should make a sequel short called, ( Joe King 2022).
5:15 What a premonition! 😂
As a kid in the 90’s, a 40’s cartoon made sense. Now I’m in my 30’s and I’m just amazed they could even do this back then.
pig pudget
Could be because the 1990s was one of the more recent times work in the US was stable and gasoline was under a dollar.
As a 65 year old, 'flat earther' it amazes me how anyone could believe that they are living on a spinning ball.
@@super_ficial well you’re just a straight up idiot I’m sorry
@@dinosore4782 And you are the idiot who believes in whatever they are taught. Even if they are taught that 13.8 billion years ago, "nothing exploded" and that's why we are all here. We are all here because, "nothing exploded'.
Who's the real idiot ? I rest my case.
Did anybody else catch the part where he equated the richest man to the poorest man and said they're equal worth in society??
Like that the actual philosophy question right there
This video does a good job explaining why the Chinese Revolution happened
Pretty scary. “Let’s pretend our system is meant to benefit workers”. 😮
A lot of solid points, but there was one key thing left unsaid: in those days, if you made above a certain amount, 90% of that money over that level was taxed, which discouraged CEOs from getting more in a day than their workers got in a year, and it meant that the rich were funding the infrastructure to move those products so efficiently.
It was a fair system and we were not saddled with a class of powerful men more powerful than the US Govt.
The hided this policy under the phrase "american way"
video also 'forgot' to mention the high rates of unionization among American workers at the time, which was another reason why wages were so much higher, because unions could collectively bargain with employers for better pay and benefits
@@armchairradical2665 Very true! Cannot argue with that. But we cannot go back to mass unionization "right now" because most Americans are unemployed or are barely making enough for rent.
While 90% was the on paper tax rate, there were enough exceptions that the percent paid was comparable to today.
69 hours a week you say?
Some people still work that for collage and self support. And somehow they tell you that you can do it.
YEET I think this comment was making a joke
Nice
Nice
1 more like and you'll have 69
I love how this had these stereotype of an Appalachian sitting around... When actually Appalachians were working at mines on property that used to own but didn't own the mineral rights to because they were stolen from them
Times have changed so much. My grandfather bought a house at 23 making $3.50 an hour. The house in total only cost $25k. He sold in 2010 for well over $250k.
The top 0.1% have seen their wages increase by 350% since the 80s. Productivity is up 61% in the workplace, yet wages have increased for the worker (and until very recently mainly
for white workers) by a measly 17% since the *70s* . Yet the cost of everything continues to rise, then people want you to believe the lie "but if we raised wages, inflation duh"
Well, reality doesn't reflect that. Then you're told that a college degree will fix all of your problems, yet the cost of college went from an average of $1,706 in 1970 to $37,650 in 2020. It's all been designed for the rich, the US has become a really expensive club that we are not invited to.
"mainly for white workers"
Asians earn more than whites. This is not a race issue and you're not oppressed
70 years later:
The Coolie carrier’s grandson builds bullet trains while Joe’s grandson lives off federal food stamps
lol XD
I guess the narrator is right he is no smarter than any other worker in other countries
@Kevin Mauricio Rodríguez Bermejo what you said reminded me of what George Carlin once said, “it’s called the American dream cos you had to be asleep to be in it”
@R Source?
But the Coolie gets paid less than Joe’s son
"We wanna stop at 1850"
"Lol Who's the character?"
"That's you're grandfather, Joe."
"Oh..."
History trips me out man
what's trippy about that?
@@elliot04877 how short of a time ago 1850 was but how long ago it seems
@@zoombini1831 you nailed it 💀💀
my father was able to shake hands with civil war vets
"That's a time machine"
It's clearly a chronovisor
"and it's a good thing you OWN this machine, so YOU get all the extra value from its productivit-"
I don't
"Eh, wha-"
I don't own the machine, the investors do.
"Ah- hm... So I guess, they get all that surplus value, and only have to give you enough wages to stay alive for as long as you can... work"
Yeah, that's why I joined a unio-
"HEY LOOK AT THIS FUNNY LOOKIN' CHINESE GUY"
6:52 this is actually really funny because a company developed stockings that practically have endless lifetime (they can literally pull a car), but they stopped selling them because its wayyyy more profitable to make stockings that rip fast and sell new ones.
This is a massive problem in tons of industries in the modern day.
Goods are no longer made with the intention of a long-lasting, quality product. Clothing, cars, appliances, all are made to last just long enough to warrant another purchase.
This is perhaps the main reason I often try to purchase clothes secondhand (besides the fact most clothing I find appealing is practically not being made anymore) they tend to be of exceptional quality and last a long time compared to junk clothing made under terrible conditions in sweatshops.
The same cannot really be done with cars and appliances, unfortunately enough. Older ones tend not to meet up to modern standards, be it electricity consumption, pollution, etcetera. Forcing consumers to buy intentionally sabotaged products they have no alternatives for.
@@thebreadbringer9522 Long lasting appliances are expensive to manufacture. People pick the appliance that is cheaper but has a shorter life. This incentivises the shorter life appliance to be manufactured more. Consumers are the largest cause of this issue.
@@thebreadbringer9522 Yup. Not to glorify but as an example, the GDR invented a new type of glass in the '70s ('Superfest') and mass-produced a cheap kind of virtually indestructible glass, to last for basically ever. After the GDR was dissolved, companies didn't want it, openly saying "we could only sell this once, where's the profit in that" and the license ran out and is now open for grabs.
@@derpherp7432 When nearly every company is intentionally producing lower-quality products, and a majority of consumers are subject to the Boots Theory of Economics (that is, you keep spending money on new pairs of low-quality boots or you go barefoot for months to save up for the high-quality ones,) it's hard to say it's really the consumer that's the problem.
@@fatcat1414 Nah its the consumer. People like cheap appliances. The companies that put the expensive long lasting parts in their appliances go bankrupt because they are out competed by the companies who put the cheap parts in and can sell the appliance for cheaper.
"Just because Joe's an Ameircan doesn't mean-"
"Yeah? Well being an American is the best thing in the-OOH! My back!"
That joke works even better now, because the punchline would be Joe's American hospital bill.
@@pedropradacarciofi2517 I dont know when "I" stopped being a free market, as I am neither a market nor an American. Indeed I am European, and witnessing the fact that Social Healthcare systems such as my country's own are far cheaper for far better value per person than that in America, I rather think that free markets are bad for Healthcare prices.
Tell me about it. I was already aware that Americans had to pay their medical bills, but I was horrified to find out the prices.
@@MsPaintMr US healthcare's shit, but so is ours in Aus, it hardly works, they'd buy all their medicine from the US companies and pay for it through taxation, and the US healthcare went shit from the government regulating in favor of the rich, while in SE Asian countries, they've got excellent free-market healthcare where you know how much you're paying for it. Tho, to be fair to you, I heard Greek public healthcare was just as good.
@@MsPaintMr Don't be persuaded by those "Australian lifestyle" ads either.
You'll come here, work six times harder than Southern Europe for less, un-willingly giving your money away to god-knows-who, someone richer than you, enjoy a "luxurious" life-style in front of the TV... hell, the police arrest the witnesses to some violent acts here, 'specially shootings, to pretend like they don't happen.
We're pretty much a US establishment satellite state that figured out how better to persuade people they're not money slaves to billionaires.
BOTH countries do the same scam where they'd over-charge on something like infrastructure, funnel tens of billions to their crony-ist buddies behind the scenes, and pretend like "environmental concerns" make it ten times costlier than in mainland Europe now, or how it was 25 years ago. If we're LUCKY we're keeping 10% of what wealth we work for. Bills, Taxes, Rent, takes it away from us *all.* Worse in some countries than others, mind you.
@@MsPaintMr Don't be persuaded by those "Australian lifestyle" ads either.
You'll come here, work six times harder than Southern Europe for less, un-willingly giving your money away to god-knows-who, someone richer than you, enjoy a "luxurious" life-style in front of the TV... hell, the police arrest the witnesses to some violent acts here, 'specially shootings, to pretend like they don't happen.
We're pretty much a US establishment satellite state that figured out how better to persuade people they're not money slaves to billionaires.
BOTH countries do the same scam where they'd over-charge on something like infrastructure, funnel tens of billions to their crony-ist buddies behind the scenes, and pretend like "environmental concerns" make it ten times costlier than in mainland Europe now, or how it was 25 years ago. If we're LUCKY we're keeping 10% of what wealth we work for. Bills, Taxes, Rent, takes it away from us *all.* Worse in some countries than others, mind you.
P.S
And aye, I don't know if this is happening in your part of Europe, but this is no "Conspiracy Theory". whenever you go to one of our wondrously boring, brutalist, monotonous black-and-white shopping malls, 'cause there's nothing else to do here, there's now about twenty of these tv screens planted on the ground, sticking out.
Each one of these contains a hidden camera - "XBOX KINECT" - that even the ten-years older model was designed to tell apart each member of a household by the shape of their face. Ergo, they're likely using A.I to create a special new computer database of everyone in the country, that will be able to track anyone like they do in China based on facial data. *That* can't be good either.
IF YOU SEE such LCD billboards in the malls in your part of Europe, then you should check for a hidden camera inside the screen. Usually looks like a circle behind the glass in the top-middle area. If it *is* there, you'll notice it.
my god this aged like a fine milk
I like how Joe's grandpa back then since you didn't have too much of a choice is just grinding away. Not in a bad way, to have that strength of lifting an anvil to light a match on for your pipe, thats the most manly thing I've seen in a while.
Yeah that cartoon… what a real man 😂
@@TheRealRobertG I mean sure its exaggerated but back then men were tougher
@@berniekatzroy clearly ur not the sort of guy who appreciates a bit of irony
"The business that which fails to give the consumer the most value... often goes bankrupt..."
Tell that to Apple...
lololololololololol
Value is in the eyes of the beholder. Apple shook the tech market introducing things like the ipad (later joined by samsung, android and Google) or a buttonless mobile phone.
@@AkiraHasRisen11 so what you're saying is... apple is valuable culturally... but no one cares about it except for rich people are narcissist because they can claim "look how rich I am! I can afford a phone that doesn't even always let me do what I want!"
@@cherrycoyote55 no. I said that its price comes from years of innovations and risks taken mixed with great choices of design and style, they own a place in peoples heart because they've been with us for a long time and rarely let us down. Customer loyalty its the most valuable asset ever. I dont know how did you get all that part about rich people.
No, tell that to dumb people lol
@@AkiraHasRisen11 so if the market is so free, why isn’t there more options for a smartphone than just apple or android? If it’s just innovation that gets them so rich don’t the people that came up with that idea deserve more credit than just the company as a whole? Dont the workers deserve more for bringing such profit to a company instead of working for starvation wages? These are questions a capitalist will never answer
I like how they say we have 72% of the world's automobiles like it's an achievement while immediately showing how awful traffic is because of them.
Nationalism is a funny thing
Yeah, 72% of the world's automobiles, while there were people in Los Angeles publicly wearing gas masks because of how bad the smog was.
Letting 99% of our urban infrastructure succumb to the cancer of car-centric planning really was one of the absolute worst things that's ever happened to this country. And that's not hyperbole, literally everything from climate change to income inequality to obesity to lingering systemic racism to a general breakdown in common courtesy can be traced, at least in part, to the fact that most Americans can barely go anywhere without getting in a car.
I thought there was a huge hole in the ozone layer ?!
@@johnnybracciole5490 After the Versailles protocols, CFC were banned and the ozone layer is slowly repairing (I am not sure toh)
I love how the marrator says No, it's a time machine like thats so obvious.
Being a guy who just joined the union, I find this entertaining
6:01 literally me after getting fired from target because of a Karen 6:06 my father convincing me to join him at his job
I love that our people are becoming more aware. Gives me hope that we’ll begin to balance things out
Hopefully to get the boomers out of power
And for people to stop worshiping corrupt megacorporations hellbent on monopolozing and controlling every aspect of life under the guise of producing cute mascots, funny commercials and kiddie media.
@@chefsalty9316 you cant get socialism or communism without consolidation anyway so really this just makes it easier
Doesnt matter how "aware" we are when the entire country and most institutions are run by old senile boomers, we literally are only able to wait for them to die of old age
@@kayla_white01 No we need to get generation Y and Z out of the way. They are messing everything up!
"The American way of doing things makes it possible for more people to own their own homes." Ouch.
I love that even old American propaganda made fun of car-centrism.
"being an american is the bes.. *CRACK* ohhh my back"
best american health service will fix that right up for you, for a nominal fee
Public healthcare oh my god i have to pay higher taxes and be placed on hold but
.....Free health care good luck waiting for months bud
Back then it was because the government hadn’t restricted the market and forced out competitors which caused a few mega corporations to form around medicine. Healthcare is one of those problems created by government so they can step in with a “solution”
The doctor can heal your lack of exercies
@@daniellap.stewart6839 sadly I don’t think he can heal your poor grammar or your lack of intelligence
We can get a better health care system when we are not in a cosmic amount of debt.
watching this in 2022 is such a trip
Love how they demonstrate that the US worker produces 100000x more than his chinese counterpart, but is only paid 100x more.
Tbh its capitalism its to make companies richer
The video left out how capital also pays the US gov to pass legislation favorable to it, making the entire system possible while also undermining the very core democratic system of the country.
I smell a commie
@@bigbrotheriswatching2680 you smell rationality
@@funkyassjohn6116 if capital from private sector is what keeps the government functional, why are we 20 trillion in debt? Maybe the actual truth is, when you give people power, they get corrupt, and it has nothing to do with private sector donations. The more power, the more corruption. So the only way to create a democratic nation is to have a decentralized federalist government. Checks and balances, states rights, etc. Ya know, everything we forgot about because commies brainwashed our kids.
The federal government got massive decades before the US economy got big. If you look at our ACTUAL history, i.e. read a fucking book. You would know that corporations funded *progressive* policies, that heavily regulated their industries, allowing them to monopolize.
@@funkyassjohn6116 oh and by the way, I'm smarter than you and always will be 😂😂 find something else besides intelligence to form your one dimensional identity around.
Make a cog feel like a king. IT'S FUCKING GENIUS.
So true. "You are living like a king so don't ask for more." And So the wealthy and the industries can make even more profit out of you "king".
You'd have to be one greedy son-of-a-bitch not to take that offer.
and calling the Chinese "Coolies". It's almost like capitalism and racism go hand-in-hand or something. And who drove Hitler to blow his fucking brains out? The USA? Partially, but it was the Soviets that took Berlin.
@@troyevitt2437 racism has nothing to do with capitalism. Racist terms were just acceptable back then.
@@OctoRang They're both two arms of the same Status Quo octopus.
Anyone could walk in and get a factory job back then, as they were plentiful and considered ENTRY LEVEL. Today, you need "factory work experience".
Did CZcams start a new interface, or are my settings all messed up? Does anyone know???? Thank you.
After world war 2, Europe was in ruins and was not able to compete with USA, they were busy rebuilding .
On the other side USA was virtually unaffected buy the war and had head start in the competition game.
The last war rationing systems were phased out in the 50's and 60's, some goods were unavailable for years after the war. Most of the great powers are deeply in debt after another huge war.
Yes but they also helped European nations with Marshall plan money
america had better wages and standards even before the war your moron.
Good thing Joe didn't seriously hurt his back, the medical bills could have bankrupted him.
Healthcare as a percentage of nominal GDP was substantially lower back then, (it was in the single digits, 8 or 9 percent of GDP compared to 17.5%+ today), and most nations such as Canada didn't implement universal single payer care until the 50s' and 60s'. Canadian Medicare didn't exist until 1957 and wasn't truly universal until around the time of LBJ's great society (Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, etc.)
@@user-if8po5pu7j true but germany for example had Healthcare since bismark introduced it in the late 1800s. Bismark of all people, the Iron fisted conservative saw that as a thing to be done.
Not back then. In the 30s, basic health insurance was around $6 a month (around $100 in modern money). To compare, average health insurance cost today is around $600 a month.
@@TheNightWatcher1385 if health insurance in us is that costly no wonder people dont wanna pay it.
@@Jebu911 Especially on top of being forced to pay into social security, which is a similar monthly amount.
I like that the best thing they could come up with for defending capitalism is that you get to enjoy consumerism. "It's worth it to have your boss take all the profit. You get to buy your treaty-treats with whatever is left."
ok commie
The boss wasn’t taking all of the profits those days. We’re much closer to Laissez Faire now than in those days, and funnily enough our wage slave chains are much heavier for it. A fast food worker could support a family of his wages. Nowadays a fast food worker might be sleeping at the homeless shelter even as he works 35 hours a week.
Who would have thought we would be back to Joe's grandfather's time .
4:23 Very accurate map there...
THE QING IS BACK BABY
I like how in retrospect, this disproves what it was trying to convince people on.
Agreed.
This was made before we sold out
The lessons of economics don't suddenly change from decade to decade. Ask yourself, what has changed from then until now?
@Jimraynor45 The Gold Standard. Also oil isn't pegged to the dollar anymore 💀
at the time this was made, the messages the film conveyed were true. it's a shame many of these things have all but died out. competition has been stifled, industry has been shipped overseas, the dollar has inflated and real estate has been monopolized.
Thanks captioning for ommitting the word "coolie", so I had to look it up and now I know.
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Glad to see comments enabled... People got lots to say and while sticks and stones may break bones... you know how the rest goes. So this was a film about the working joe.... And heck yeah I got the signs saying smoke and bar..stuff that we would not do today but back then... This is a great piece of history. Thank you for sharing it and thank you for letting me talk about it.
VIVA LE RUSSKIS!
4:28 China today:wtf I used to look like that?
The Chinese guy becoming a rail tycoon
They predicted something right at least
And Joe goes into crippling debt at 1:27
6:35 - "Huge sums are spent each year to make a better product to sell for less." And then they discovered branding and advertising are cheaper and collusion is cheaper still, and that was the end of that.
I never thought a cartoon from 1949 would black pill me on modern society, but here we are.
Nothing new under the sun!
black pilled people contribute nothing to make anything better. you better compromise and move on with your live before you get sucked into this black hole of despair D;
We used to be a proper country
It’s literally propaganda my dude.
222 👍
Este "rey trabajador" tiene un cierto parecido con el soldado Snafu (Patoso) de las caricaturas de propaganda durante la II Guerra Mundial.
a freeze frame from 5:20 says it all about this film. it is important to not "cancel" archaic media like this though (dr Suess books included), we must document history and keep perspective as we progress, or in some cases digress.
The man who if he is alive now (he would be about 100), decided to throw a" 69 hours a week" joke in there needs a raise.
Died in 1987, (would be 115 if alive today)
haha 69, niceeeee
Nice.
Nice
@Ahmad Nasser It might not have even been intended as a joke.
The most incredible part about this is how little American propaganda has changed in the intervening time. This is one small art style shift away from being like, an Amazon ad
Shut up commie
You're like, so totally deep and clever, you must be the ripe old age of 15
@@bigbrotheriswatching2680 Is that a Horrible Histories reference?
@@bigbrotheriswatching2680 Why do folks like you think saying that invalidates a statement?
@@thebreadbringer9522 Do you think that classic animation is the same as the dot-faced, blob of a man artstyles?
The Investor class saw this cartoon and went to build factories where they can pay worker 10 cents a day.