Matewan: A John Sayles Film :: Economy Economics Movies Essays

Matewan A John Sayles hireJohn Sayles, the writer and director of the film Matewan, demonstrates an understanding, albeit possibly an unconscious one, of the fight back between two frugal systems. This cogitation depicts the historical purgets of 1920 in the Mingo County, watt Virginia townsfolk of Matewan, a place that came to be known as blooming(a) Mingo. Although many people are accustomed to viewing feudalisticism as a social system from the past, explanation is not such an orderly, analog progression of societies and ways of life but is, rather, a dynamic, chaotic process. Therefore, it should interject as no surprise that in the 1920s in this serving of the United States there was a clash of two different economic systemscapitalism and feudalism.Economic systems are attempts to solve the following questions Who does the production? Who controls the profit? And what is the social arrange workforcet by which the two previous questions are mulish? There is an inter locking triad of considerations economic relationships political relationships and cultural relationships. We reckon these relationships brought to life in the events of Matewan. Feudalism exists when free people have to work for a single employer, or not work at all. Capitalism, in contrast, allows free people to choose their employers. There is often in history a struggle between feudal and capitalist structures. The story of the scorch miners is the story of one such clash.The Stone Mountain Coal community owns everything in the town of Matewan. Its owners, the economic elite, could be likened to a collective feudal lord presiding over the estate of Matewan. Theirs is the yet game in town and the miners have no choice in where they work This monopoly is feudal because of the absence seizure of free choice. Capitalism requires competition over capital, not just capital. The join lack of competition is exposed in the train scene. The new men are told that they are beholden to the company for expensestheir tools, their train fare, tool sharpening, and even their fuses, caps, and powder. What little pay is left over is issued in company scrip, which is only good at the companys store. We, the audience, are told at the barrage of the film that the pay rate per tonnage has just been lowered. The companys grip is vise-like it can charge more and pay less. This combination is the scissors hold effect, and it leaves the miners in a subservient position.