A Review of The Pursuit

A Review of The Pursuit

    During chapel this past week, I believe on Monday, a trailer was played for a movie called The Pursuit. The movie was supposedly about a musician turned economist named Dr. Brooks who embarked on a journey to discover the solution to the problems of poverty, value, and happiness. This movie sounded interesting to me, so I entertained the thought of going to watch the screening. It was then declared to us that, if we attended, we would acquire a chapel skip. This made the prospect even more appealing, but I was still unsure about attending because of homework and the usual excuses that plague every college student. But then, later that day, an email from Dr. Jacobs popped into my inbox. The message stated that everyone who attended would garner a shining GB Favor. My supply of these blessed items has been rather low all semester, so of course that was the tipping point that finally pushed me to go.

    The Pursuit, overall, was a fascinating movie that I enjoyed watching. It began with Dr. Brooks telling a story of a trip he went on when he was a professional French horn player (he assured the audience that it was an actual career). He was on a plane flying to the venue he was performing at with his fellow musicians, when they had to make an emergency stop because something went wrong. They touched down in a remote part of I believe Asia (I can’t remember the exact place), and when he exited the plane he was met with a grisly sight; the people of a town near where they had landed were living in conditions of utter, abject poverty. He wondered how people in America could have so much when fellow people in the same world were subjected to animal-like conditions. After that event, he became an economist and began searching for the solution to poverty. After examining various cultures in historical and modern times, he came to the conclusion that the political system that raises people out of poverty most effectively is capitalism. Not the mistaken ideas of capitalism that some people in the world have obtained, but true capitalism that provides equal opportunity to all. This true capitalism is the essence of the American Dream, and it is why so many people in history have looked to America when they have wanted to start a new life. He examined instances when capitalism has worked such as the town of Dharavi in India which, at first glance, appears to be a slum but, upon closer inspection, is found to be instead a “hub of industries”. A mother in Dharavi was interviewed who said that, because of the work she was able to do since her country started allowing competitive industries, she was able to pay for her kids’ education. Her annual income before capitalism came in was “not even 30 rupees”.

    Dr. Brooks listed some statistics in support of his discovery that capitalism is the cure for poverty. He said that in the past 30 years, the amount of people in the world living in extreme poverty has gone down about 80%. The amount of infant mortality has also gone down about 60%. India has recently been listed as the fastest-growing economy in the world since they opened themselves up to capitalism. Dr. Brooks states that these declining numbers are directly related to the positive effects of capitalism, yet despite this data, “people worldwide are turning against the system that has lifted us up out of poverty.” He talked to several people in other countries as well as America about why they disagree with capitalism, but found that in basically every instance, the individuals expressed flawed beliefs about what capitalism truly is, and many of their proposed solutions actually fell under the umbrella of true capitalism. Capitalism is not a system that robs the poor and gives to the rich, it is a system where those who are willing to work can find work and earn a living to build a life. Brooks observes that people who are for capitalism and against it argue about almost every point, but the one point on which they seem to agree is that work is a punishment. Those who are against it say that capitalism forces work on people and those who are for it say that people have to work or they can’t provide for themselves. But he makes the assertion that both these views are flawed. He proposes, instead, “Work is not a punishment. All work is sanctified. Work creates value.” He claims that people have an innate desire to do something good with their lives and that people’s self-value is connected to that. Because of this idea, he declares, “The solution to poverty and value is work.”

    Dr. Brooks raises many interesting points in his documentary, and produces several convincing conclusions. The movie begins as a search for the solution to poverty and transitions into a defense of capitalism. While trying to determine why people are against it, he discovers that the most common reason is that some people think of capitalism as an evil system built off of the greed of the wealthy. He asserts that, “Greed is not the basis of capitalism. People bring evil. You can’t get rid of the evil in the human heart by getting rid of capitalism, but capitalism alone cannot solve poverty. It takes morals.” He makes the assertion that capitalism may be flawed, but so is every other option out there. No system alone is enough, including capitalism. It will take morals in order for any truly good change to come, but capitalism can aid those morals in accomplishing positive change better than any other system out there, because capitalism enables all men to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, he ends the film with the conclusion presented above. The pursuit of happiness that all men undertake is enabled and fulfilled through capitalism.