Maxed Out

Documentary on DVD Explores Phenomenon of Debt in America

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Why do you think more Americans will file for bankruptcy than for divorce this year? According to Maxed Out, the answer lies in the increasingly predatory lending practices of the country's credit card companies. For just a generation ago, it was much more difficult to obtain a line of credit from a bank. But between the deregulation of interest rates and a revised corporate philosophy, those who can least afford debt suddenly find themselves deluged with credit card offers.

The result is no surprise: millions of borrowers who end-up burdened by a mountain of debt they have no way of ever eliminating. The best they can do is keep making partial payments while their bills escalate exponentially. And the credit card companies are quite comfortable with the arrangement because this modern equivalent of indentured servitude simply ensures that the rich will get richer while the poor stay poor. Maxed Out isn't a movie about frivolous, fiscally-irresponsible folks who have failed to manage their finances due to their own delinquency. No, this alarming exposé reveals a banking industry which specifically targets the naive, the poor, the uneducated, and other high-risk individuals because the best customers are those who are broke.

How did we become a country where avaricious mega-corporations heartlessly feast on the misfortunes of the least of our brethren, aided and abetted in that endeavor by an anti-consumer Congress? This is the question which Maxed Out seeks to answer via a combination of probing interviews with experts, such as Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, and eye-opening investigative journalism conducted all across the nation.

A wake-up call about the unconscionable, state-sanctioned usury which is destroying the prospects of the masses of working class citizens of ever achieving the American Dream.

Excellent ****(4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 87 minutes
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment