Capitalism: A Love Story Page #5

He went to the State of the Union.

Heck, he even went

to the Super Bowl.

And then he went to Congress.

Sullenberger:

Flying has been my lifelong passion.

But while l love my profession,

l do not like

what has happened to it.

- ( music halts )

- lt is my personal experience

that my decision to remain

in the profession l love

has come at a great financial cost

to me and to my family.

My pay has been cut 40%/%.

My pension, like most airline pensions,

has been terminated.

So please do not think l exaggerate

when l say that l do not know

a single professional airline pilot

who wants his or her children

to follow in their footsteps.

Moore:
Whoa, you cleared

the room with that one, Sully.

l don't think the congressmen

wanted to hear that stuff.

- They like you as a hero.

- The current experience...

( patriotic music over dialogue )

Moore:
What was

your starting pay as a pilot?

l made $19,000 the first year.

l was bumped up to about 22,000

or 23,000 the second year.

Last year, gross pay

l made $17,600.

There's a joke in the airline

when we get our wings pinned on us

as new-hire airline pilots

that the company just kinda says,

''Hey, don't apply for food stamps

in your uniform.''

Moore:
l don't know about you,

but l want the pilot

who's got me 30,000 feet up in the air

to be paid really well

and not sitting up in the cockpit

digging through the pilot's seat

looking for loose change.

There was a period

of about four months

where l was on food stamps.

- You were on food stamps?

- Yes.

- And you were still flying the plane?

- Yes.

With my--

with my food stamp card.

The lady l talked to

in the food stamp office,

when l told her l was a pilot,

she didn't bat an eye,

but she didn't--

l knew she didn't believe me.

Moore:
How have you gotten by?

How have you been able to afford things?

Relying on credit cards

to buy the groceries at times

- when l wasn't on food stamps.

- Oh, really?

l have about $10,000

in credit card debt

just on the necessities,

not on the big-screen TV

and the stereo.

Moore:
You're using it

to buy your groceries and get by.

- Yes.

- Do you have any student loan debt?

- Yes.

- How much?

Mine is about 80,000.

- l took out $100,000.

- Moore:
Student loans?

And by the time l pay it back,

at this rate,

it'll probably cost me well over

a half a million with interest

and fees and penalties.

lt's something that l don't--

l don't like to spend a lot of time

thinking about

because it's abysmal.

lt's one way that l get down

really quickly

about my chosen career field

is to think about how much l owe

and how little l make.

Moore:
Have you had to work

a second job to make ends meet?

l walk dogs on the side,

l distribute MonaVie Juice.

l have known pilots

to donate plasma

for extra cash.

- You mean they give blood?

- They-- well--

So they can make extra money

even though they're flying an airplane?

Yeah.

They donate their plasma.

So they get the blood back,

but you can get paid for plasma.

- ( chuckles )

- Oh, l see.

They suck the blood out of you,

take the plasma...

- Give you the blood back.

- ...give you the--

Oh, well then,

not such a bad deal.

The only reason people stay flying

is because they love it.

And managements

take advantage of that.

The airlines

have managed to farm out

a lot of the flying to commuters

in an effort to basically

bust the unions.

You can't compete

to a lower and lower level

every year

without skimping

on safety somehow.

Moore:
At approximately 10:15 PM

on February 1 2, 2009,

Continental connection flight 3407

began its descent

to the airport in Buffalo.

( sirens wailing )

Man:
Stand by, there's some

ground communication,

either state police

or sheriff's department.

We need to find out if anything

is on the ground.

This aircraft was five miles out,

and all of a sudden

we have no response

to that aircraft.

All l could tell you is there was

an aircraft over the marker

and we're not talking to them now.

Moore:

No one survived the crash

and 50 people lost their lives.

The media focused

on the actions of the pilots.

Reporter:
Captain Marvin Renslow

and First Officer Shaw

were chatting about their careers.

Moore:

''Careers'' is a euphemism

for what the pilots

were really talking about:

how little they were paid

and how overworked they were.

There would be

no discussion in the media

about why we have

an economic system

that allows a pilot to be paid less

than a manager at Taco Bell.

Reporter:

First Officer Shaw

made between

$16,000 and $20,000 a year

and at one point

worked a second job.

Moore:
Her second job

had been waitressing

at a coffee shop.

How are these companies

able to get away with this?

( laughs )

l guess that's the point of capitalism.

lt allows you to get away

with anything,

like making a profit

off the death of an employee.

Sweetie, l can open it.

Let's try it with this.

Moore:

This is lrma Johnson.

lrma's husband Dan

worked in middle management

at Amegy Bank in Houston, Texas.

- Wanna try to spread it?

- No.

Moore:

Dan recently died of cancer,

leaving behind lrma

and their two sons.

But unbeknownst to lrma,

Amegy had taken out

a secret life insurance policy

on Dan's life.

The bank generously named itself

as the beneficiary

in the event of Dan's death.

The insurance company

then accidentally informed lrma

that Amegy Bank had received

a check for $1 1/2 million

just weeks after Dan died.

Thank you for helping.

Johnson:

They never told me.

l wanted to find out, well,

why did they purchase a policy for him?

- Moore:
You didn't know about it?

- No.

And they named themselves

as the beneficiary.

Yeah.

Moore:

So your husband's death

made them $1.5 million richer?

Mm-hmm.

l know it's not right

for them to try to profit

from my husband's death.

When l first realized

what was happening,

l was in disbelief.

- lt's hurtful.

- l'm so sorry.

Um...

it's hurtful and l wanted answers.

Moore:
lrma contacted

Michael D. Myers,

a local attorney who had

already been looking into

these kind of corporate

insurance policies on their employees.

With the normal use of life insurance,

where you're guarding against

the loss of a loved one

or a breadwinner of the family,

you don't want that person to die.

With these policies,

the companies that buy these

want the employees to die

in accordance

with the policy projections.

You are more valuable dead

to a company than alive.

American Greetings, RR Donnelly & Sons,

and Proctor & Gamble

are all having problems

with mortality.

These four combined programs

are running at 50%/%

of expected mortality.

These clients are acutely aware

of this problem.

Basically here the broker

is complaining

that not enough

employees are dying.

And therefore the investment returns

are not matching the projections.

The broker writes

that NCC is running

at 78%/% of expected mortality.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes