“Most of us don’t know where our money is. There’s only one thing we can be sure of: our money is not in the bank where we put it for safekeeping.”
This is the tagline of the documentary ‘Let’s make money’, a documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer, published in 2008, which gives us a deeper insight into the world’s financial market. It starts with the surface level of the global economy, banks borrowing and lending money from customers and corporations, showing businessmen talking about their investments and shows their reasons to invest in the global economy.
“I don’t think the investor should be responsible for the ethics, or the pollution or whatever of the company which they invest in. His job is to invest and to make money for his client.”
After the introduction of the rich, western part of the world, where the people care most about their money and how they can get more of it, we change to the other side of this economy to the underdeveloped countries where the real production is taking place. The documentary exposes the many layers of the economic trade that lie just hidden from view.
We see a big contrast between the front side of the economy and the darker side of it. We see businessmen investing in large companies and the local population being the victims of this large scale of economy. Because of the globalization companies are forced to compete with other companies. They have to keep the wages low, to make the most profit out of their products. Which makes the local nation to the victims of this kind of economy.
In India the citizens are paying taxes, which meant to be used to make the country better and take care of their citizens. Instead of helping the local people, the Indian government uses the taxes the citizens pay to put into foreign investors, instead of social care. The Indian government is interested in these large investors, who bring a lot of money. The society is the victim of the growing economy by emerging markets. The poor people in the underdeveloped countries don’t have enough money to take care of their own country. They cannot bear the high costs of keeping the country in order, which causes even a worse environment.
“Flourishing economic growth has nothing to do with the people or the society. It’s only for the politicians, the investor and the middleman who plays in between them.”
Emerging markets, where investors look beyond the borders of their own country to find other parts of the world to make the most profit out of their companies. The large companies provide underdeveloped countries for further economic growth. These are the people who benefit from these emerging markets. The rich countries use the poor parts of the world to produce as cheap as possible and the local people get exploited by them, only for the benefit of the companies.
In the emerging market the economy grows very quick, what makes a very unstable economy. The investors take advantage of the globalization, make the best use of it and leave the place behind as soon as it isn’t useful anymore, leaving the citizens with the outworn country. Like in Africa, where big investors come, take everything they can and leave again.
“The cotton is gone, the money is gone, the only thing that’s left is this soil, where you can’t cultivate anything.”
The big investors are gone as soon as the country loses his value, leaving the local people with the useless ground, where they have to stay for the rest of their lives. The investors keep going, looking for new places, collecting more money to invest in emerging markets.
Written by Ilse