Movie: It's a Wonderful Life

"It's a Wonderful Life" is a movie that was released almost 70 years ago -- in 1946.  It's about an angel who helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed.

At this time of year I show this movie for several reasons:

1. It's a good study of someone who has dreams of what they want to do but situations in life move them in another direction.
2. It's a good example of how finance in a savings and loan situation works.
3. It demonstrates economic principles and how a small town can get caught up in a national crisis.
4. It demonstrates a "run" on a bank.
5. It does a good job of showing how our great grandparents (and great-great grandparents) weren't really so different from us.  Whether we [or they] are willing to admit it or not.
6. It shows how a good, intelligent, hard-working person can still suffer from depression.
7. It reminds us that we don't always know the difference we are making in others' lives.

There aren't a lot of requirements for this movie other than paying attention and completing a simple worksheet for the first and second halves of the movie.  If you would like another copy of the worksheet, you can download it. (Here)

I'll be showing it in class, but here's an online version that you can watch:

I.O.U.S.A.

IOUSA is an interesting, informative, and factual summary of the US financial health up to the end of the Bush era.  It covers the growing deficit and debt of the nation, its effect on Social Security and our heavy dependence on foreign funds.

Worksheet Download: [LINK]

Next I want you to consider how much money we're talking when we say millions, billions, or trillions.

• Imagine that you earn $10/hr. and you work 40 hours per week for 52 weeks per year.  You would earn approximately $20,800 per year (before taxes).  If you began working at 18 and worked until you were 68 (at the same pay rate and hours) and you never took a day off work in that 50 years -- you will have earned $1,040,000 (again, before taxes).  A million dollars for 50 years of work (minus the $200,000 the government takes, of course)
• Now imagine that you want to earn a BILLION dollars.  Easy, instead of working for 50 years, you would have to work for 50,000 years!  Or you could get paid $10,000/hr. and work for 50 years -- of course the government would take a lot more of your income.
• Now imagine that you want to earn a TRILLION dollars.  Well, instead of working 50,000 years (at $10/hr.) you must work 50 MILLION years.  If you were lucky enough to earn $10,000/hr. you would only have to work 50,000 years.  If you found a job paying $10,000,000/hr. you would only have to work 50 years.
• If you simply wanted to count a Trillion dollars a dollar at a time (1 per second), it would take you nearly 2,000,000 years to complete (1,902,588 years).
• Now consider for a moment, that since 2000, our National Debt has grown from about $5 Trillion to about $19 Trillion.  Our government has managed to go into debt an additional $14 Trillion in just 15 years.  Much is blamed on the Gulf Wars, but all of those could have been paid for with $1 Trillion.  Who's getting the money?
• Our National Debt Clock: http://www.usdebtclock.org/

How much is a Trillion -- in $1,000 bills?

What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like?