Thank You, Recession

great segment. thanks for sharing this. the part about the coop factories was especially cool. i think it'd be awesome if we had that here in the US.

Great video, Very informative and great to use two presenters at once. A Nice change.

Good Doc, But lets not forget the reason China got all our American manufacturing " our no good anti-American Traitors" sold the American people out!
We never wanted to outsource our Nations wealth.
Bush and his cronys( congress) aswell as other powerfull partys did this to America and I hope the American people may repay them for thier Treason.

I would love to follow the doc style of this series. This was a very involved, moving, intelligent, and educational piece. I am very happy that this video was made for Earth.

This is a great story. i love the part about the factories, everyone needs to watch this. with the situation in the US i have focused a lot of my attention on my art and it has allowed me to really experiment with my work, so there is some good out of everything. it would be nice to see more creative survival ideas out of the US but i think most of us aren't desperate enough yet.

thank you recession for replacing convenience with value, helping to prioritize practicality. very well done!

Now watch that gold party lady turn around and make a killing on that jewelry she bought.

Great piece , it really makes me think out of the box. There are so many new markets and opportunities even in the recession.

Maybe this is perfect for all those "winers" out there that actually beleive we are in this situation,( in the US), because Obama was elected president and that he is responsable for our economy. This of course is so obsurb anyway,(since it was this way before he was even nominated to run)!!!
Great perspective thanks vangaurd!!!

O geeze... We are using less wood for building, which is good. Painting a depression pretty is just a little less than hard hitting.

This was really ...

The variety of groups and people interviewed gives the issue scope. It's nice to see a recession through the eyes of people who've 'been there, done that.' Thank you recession for connecting us to others through empathy.

Vanguard and the Daily Show are the only two journalism outlets that have any backbone. Thank you for being so awesome!

Hum this was a really witty show, I still have a bit of hope for this country.

Thank you for such a great show!

nice piece.

people are amazing.

i like the recession clothing guys, they were cool.

Positive things coming from a recession - who knew! I enjoyed watching this as it gave me some hope in my job search in Philadelphia. Head is held up high, need to start to put my creativity to work and keep in mind life could be a lot worse!

Ok Eta. Until you show me an example of a prosperous contemporary nation state that reflects your views, they remain Utopian rhetoric.

The economic thinkers you dismiss as irrelevant will still be studied and modeled many decades from now.

Now your post did send me to research "Self Reflexivity" and it is a profound concept at first glance. I'll do more homework and return to the fray.

cheers from So Calif.

@mewcomm
the problem with your rhetoric is that it's literal, old-school short-sightedness. this documentary and corresponding vanguard pieces are about humanism, social responsibility and re-appropriation. not just academic, ended regurgitation of past economic philosophy. and dropping names like smith, friedman and putting parenthesis after marx is in itself cynical and ignorant.
we're just trying to turn the manufactured sentimentality that was passed down to us into something sincere. how can we as a culture and society consummate potentialities of marxism and construct a sustainable economic model if we don't first find human connection? how can we explore, signify and empower the process if there's no empathy and self-reflexivity?
you're suggesting a band-aid for an internal wound.

thank you recession, for helping me realize that i was spending to much money on to much stuff that i dont have time to use because all my time is being spent making more money to buy more stuff

I found the piece interesting. I found the comments naive and absurd. Have any of these people read Adam Smith, Karl Marx (Hero of the Left) David Ricardo, Thornstein Veblen, even Lord Keynes or Milton Friedman? Unlikely!

"Take to the Streets?" Have "Wal-Mart save the nation?" And "what kind of camera" did they use?

This is economic understanding?

I challenge the producers 3 years from now to revisit the Candy factory in Argentina and Recession Clothing Do a "Where are they now?" update. Further, re-interview the "Thank You Recession" respondents. Have they prospered with their new found behaviors?

Until then this piece remains in the "Feel good despite reality" category. The larger issues: the rapid decline and unlikely return of manufacturing jobs in the US and global competition are not even mentioned. And the really big problem: how the uneducated and low skilled have a very bleak future in a knowledge worker world.

Still I admire the producers for their piece. Despite it's shortcomings.

Its sad but shows that 'less is more'...think we could all learn from this..enjoyed watching this clip

Fantastic, thanks!

About The Recession, by Richard R. Blackston

I have a question for the directors of Wal-Mart, which is, as we all know, a multi-billion dollar store chain. Why can’t they bail out our beautiful country? I know Wal-Mart can do this if they really wanted to, they certainly have the buying power and moreover, if Wal-Mart did bail America out, shoppers everywhere would revere the store chain! In doing so, everyone wins! So my question to Wal-Mart is, don’t you think it’s time you give back to this country, after all this country has given to you? Without a doubt, if I had a billion dollars, I would bail America out! So I ask you Wal-Mart, why don’t you or why can’t you do this for America?!
Furthermore, America has many resources which can be used to fix the deficit! I ask for the best country, pop, and rock stars to pull together and make CDs plus perform concerts to raise money to help bail our beautiful country out of its debts! It is time to stop pointing fingers at where the problem began, and start banning together while being creative toward fixing the problems, before it’s too late!
I call on the richest people in our country as well as the most famous. Lets take action to save our heritage before it's too late! The saying is true, there is some trash on the road, now someone should clean it up!

Sincerely,
Richard R. Blackston

awesome Documentary!

Americans need to take to the streets. Our system is broken and the only way to fix it is to protest protest protest. Everyone out of work lets go!

Current Vanguard is like the journalism equivalent of The Dream Team.
does anyone know the make of the camera being used?

This was a great documentary of the comparison of our CURRENT situation with Argentina's past. I studied abroad in Buenos Aires for a few months and completely understand what your message is trying to convey to people in Northern America. We should make way with what we have and weed out our needs verses our wants. Argentina has turned around for the better and the citizens truly live their lives to the fullest with what they have. We can definitely learn from their way of life. However, I do have a bone to pick that I feel the producers left out. What about "los cartoneros?"

http://www.twn.org/catalog/pages/cpage.aspx?rec=1175&card=price

Back to the traditions of our ground parents before corporation, when we all use to come together and work with one another. I love it, here in the U.S. we use technology to connected with each other and meetup groups.

Partnerships, people driven by people, social evolution, inspiring! we are becoming more involved I really like the economics of mutual exchange and how the world can be shaped by a horizontally ruled community.

Rather ironic how western countries are now a casulaty of capitalism and that we are now turning to developing nations for inspiration.

That was a very good, interesting and light-hearted documentary about the lighter side of the recession.

I know I'm currently looking for my first job and with the economic downturn still around, it is very hard.

Thank you for not including things like "use coupons" or "buy generic brands." Interesting comparison to Argentina. The video was really well made too.

great reminder that our situation is not unique... and people are resilient!