Drowning in Debt

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“The Joneses,” German writer/director Derrick Brote’s first film, could be considered a social critique on America’s endemic, debt-ridden, buying lust. It is a morality tale, a fable: be careful what you want, it could kill you, or hurt you, your family, friends and neighbors.

The film was made in 2008 during the U.S. recession that began in December 2007 and exacerbated by home-buying losses starting in 2006. In the first 10 months of 2008, employers trimmed payrolls by 1.2 million jobs. Regardless, the producers went ahead with “The Joneses.” It has been speculated that the film’s release date may have been delayed until the economy improved.

This beautifully made film is all about marketing— everything from alcohol-infused juice boxes to highend Audi sports cars—instigated by a charismatic couple, Kate and Steve Jones, played by Demi Moore and David Duchovny and their perfect, comely teenage children, Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth). The Joneses move into a multi-storied, wood and stone mansion in an upscale suburb of Spokane, Wash. Acres of sloping lawns and a winding, tree-lined street separate them from their nearest neighbors— Larry (a perfectly cast Cary Cole in his best role) and Summer (a tousle-haired, blonde Glenne Headly).

To welcome their new neighbors, Larry and Summer bring them a gift—Summer’s beauty products, which she sells at house parties (a hint of their financial status). They “ooooo” and “ahhh” over everything from the Jones’s furniture to Steve’s brand of beer as the Joneses rave on, like salespeople. Which is what they are—they and their perfect kids. They work for a marketing company.

You begin to catch on when Kate sends Steve off to sleep in a separate bedroom, and when Jenn sneaks into his bed. Kate bursts in and tosses her out; Amber sneers, “G’night ‘Dad’. ”

Kate is Steve’s boss; he’s a new hire, an ex-golf pro and car salesman. But he is too much into Kate and the good life; his sales suffer. Kate reads him the riot act, so Steve steps up and out-sells her. He touts the latest golf equipment to his pals, flat-panel TVs, the latest electronic devices, etc. The ’teens are no slouches (continued from page 12: “Horizon darkens for U.S. occupation of Afghanistan”) was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.

“While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-thebooks spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.”

“Off the books” is the name of the game for the murder-for-profit corporations.

Mohammed Obaid Ormur / AP And “off the books” obviously means uncontrolled. But the snake that the U.S. authorities released is striking them in the foot: “Officials say Mr. Furlong’s operation seems to have been shut down, and he is now is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Defense Department for a number of possible offenses, including contract fraud.”

The article continued: “ Even in a region of the world known for intrigue, Mr. Furlong’s story stands out. At times, his operation featured a mysterious American company run by retired Special Operations officers and an iconic C.I.A. figure who had a role in some of the agency’s most famous episodes, including the either. Mick shills hi-end video games and monitors to his friends; Jenn—clothes, shoes, and cosmetics. Kate shows off her lush, velvet sweats to her female neighbors, but jogs alone. Their friendships are superficial.

The head of the corporation, KC, played with intense business mien by former super-model Lauren Hutton, ensure that the Joneses stock up on inventory. Her mentor is probably the British economist Paul Elkins, who wrote of consumerism: “The possession and use of an increasing number and variety of goods and services is the principle aspiration and the surest personal route to personal happiness, social status, and national success.” The secret is in knowing who these people are: Just about everyone.

Kate lures a gay salon proprietor, Billy (a believable (Photo) Afghan forces secure area in Logar Province after hundreds of people set fire to trucks to protest civilian deaths due to NATO raids, April 25.

Iran-Contra affair. “The allegations that he ran this network come as the American intelligence community confronts other instances in which private contractors may have been improperly used on delicate and questionable operations, including secret raids in Iraq and an assassinations program that was halted before it got off the ground.”

The article quoted an unnamed American official to the effect that having free lancers running around war fronts trying to play James Bond was a bad idea. Now the U.S. authorities are obviously having their doubts about the mercenaries. The doubts are widening.

The New York Times published an article April 13 that asked the questions of how far the U.S. policy of assassinating terrorists could go and whether it was not only counterproductive but dangerous.

The article was apparently prompted to some extent by the news that the U.S. had ordered the assassination of a U.S. citizen implicated with Islamists: “But in this case the price we pay goes far beyond failure. If Harold Koh—the state department lawyer assigned the job of justifying Obama’s strategy—carries • Deconstructing Karl (by Cliff Conner) $2 $1 per pamphlet for shipping. • The Communist Manifesto (Marx & Engles) $3 • Fascism: What it is and how to fight it. (by Leon Trotsky) $3 (Left) Amber Heard plays a shill for a marketing company in “The Joneses.”

Chris Williams) into turning over his client list. The Joneses throw a lavish party where she and Steve extol the virtues of stuff discretely integrated into their home, to the envy of their guests, who include Billy and his clients. When the couple’s fake children get into trouble, causing a potential scandal and compromising Kate, KC meets Steve secretly in her chauffer-driven stretch limo and advises him to dump Kate and start with a new “family,” and head up ICON, the outfit over which all her marketers drool at the chance to crack.

But he’s fallen in love with Kate; and grows a conscience. Tragedy befalls sad-sack Larry and fragile Summer, a result of over-extended credit and lapsed mortgage payments, the result of Larry’s drive to “keep up with the Joneses.”

The film starts out as a kick-in-the-gut to out-ofcontrol consumerism, a revelation on how we are manipulated daily by hundreds of ads, junk mail, television, product placement (intentionally showing products in television programs or movies so they are linked with characters), and “word of mouth” marketing. Clever (read underhanded and sneaky) marketing is the means to get people to buy, using shills who act as unpaid (in the Jones’s case, paid) “brand agents” to push products on the naive.

In 2008 U.S. businesses spent $1.5 billion on marketing, and the figure has grown to $1.9 billion this year. Look at those “good people” at the bank who sold balloon mortgages to the poor in the mid2000s. People buy tons of stuff they don’t need (or even want) on credit.

This year, in April, jobless applications were at 456,000. Wholesale prices rose more than expected in March, and food prices surged the most in 26 years. By the end of 2010, economists predict 2.4 million borrowers could lose their homes, according to the Los Angeles Times. That would be an increase from 2.1 million foreclosures and short sales in 2009.

“Experts” contend in the mass media that the economy is improving. But as Larry and Summer find out, eventually somebody has to pay up, or (literally in Larry’s case) drown in debt— a lesson most Americans learned in late 2008. “The Joneses,” which could have been a Michael Moore-type of unveiling, is weakened by a love-story ending. n the day, America will be telling the world that it’s O.K. to lob missiles into countries that haven’t attacked you, as long as you think a terrorist may live there. Do we really want to send that message to, for example, Russia and China, both of which have terrorism problems? Or India or Pakistan? “And are we sure we want to say that, actually, due process of law isn’t really guaranteed all American citizens so long as there’s a war on terrorism—which, remember, is a war that may continue for eternity?”

Mainstream liberal publications like the Huffington Post have begun to refer to the Afghan war as “Obama’s war.” It is clearly casting a dark shadow over his administration. Of course, he has simply taken over the task of administering U.S. imperialism. But in the age of U.S. economic decline and political and social retrogression, these policies are becoming more and more costly and more and more threatening to the rulers of the system themselves. They are caught in their own coils.

Unfortunately, the American people are caught up with them and will pay the ultimate price. To get out of these traps, Americans have to mobilize directly in the streets to force the government and its gangster minions to withdraw immediately and completely from their entanglement in Afghanistan. n