Watching the classic Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life” through the lens of wealth inequality sheds new light on the story’s villain, Mr. Potter.
More Top Picks Best Motorcycle Stands For The Money
The film delivers a warm message summarized by a note from Clarence, the guardian angel who saves George Bailey from taking his own life over money woes.
“Dear George — Remember no man is a failure who has friends,” Clarence wrote.
The happy ending hides the film’s much darker theme about an unethical capitalist who tries to drain wealth from a community without regard to the well being of its inhabitants.
George, played by Jimmy Stewart, exposes the sinister goals of Potter, portrayed by Lionel Barrymore, in a scene where a board of directors is about to decide the future of a building and loan after George’s father has died.
Potter shows his disdain for the working class by calling the residents of Bedford Falls a bunch of “lazy rabble.”
“He did help a few people get out of your slums,” George tells Potter in defense of his father. George then addresses the board members.
“You’re all businessmen here, don’t it make them better citizens, doesn’t it make them better customers?” George says.
George turns his ire back to Potter, challenging his claim from a moment earlier that townspeople could afford down payments for homes if they waited and saved their money over time.
“Wait for what?” George asks. “Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they’re so old and broken down that — do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000?”
“Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community,” George says. “Is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” was released in 1946, yet the film’s message of wealth inequality resonates to this day, perhaps more than ever.
The American Film Institute ranked Mr. Potter No. 6 on a list of the greatest movie villains of all time, surpassed only by Hannibal Lector, Norman Bates, Darth Vader, The Wicked Witch of the West and Nurse Ratched.
Potter is a greedy, selfish, privileged, money grubbing robber baron whose only concern is accumulating more wealth. The sad thing is, there’s plenty of wealth to go around for everyone to live decent lives. The top 1%, however, always seem intent on taking more than their fair share.
“The distance between their gargantuan wealth and the financial struggles of working Americans has never been clearer,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in 2021. “The rich have enough political power to cut their taxes to almost nothing.”
As I became aware of the film’s warning about the threats of unrestrained capitalism, I pondered its source. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is based on a short story written in 1939 during the depths of the Great Depression by Philip Van Doren Stern.
Van Doren Stern was a Civil War historian who was born in 1900. He was so known for his scholarly work that when he died in 1984, The New York Times devoted all of one paragraph in his obituary to mentioning that he wrote the story upon which “It’s a Wonderful Life” was based.
He couldn’t find a publisher for his short, 4,000 word story, so he eventually printed out copies and gave them to friends during Christmastime 1943. The bones of the tale are essentially there in his story, which was called “The Greatest Gift.” But the villainous character Henry F. Potter is absent.
The timeless villain appears to be a creation of the film’s director, Frank Capra, an Italian immigrant who loved America dearly. Capra wrote in his 1971 autobiography about his vision for his 1939 film, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
“The more uncertain are the people of the world, the more their hard-won freedoms are scattered and lost in the winds of chance, the more they need a ringing statement of America’s democratic ideals,” Capra wrote.
Scholars have written about Capra’s intent to create a villain in Potter who captures the slimy underside of unfettered capitalism. Vince Nobile, a history professor at Chaffey College, explored the topic in a 2003 essay for the History News Network at George Washington University.
“To Capra, the rich and powerful had none of the essential qualities to preserve freedom in America, nor did they display any of the core cultural values he championed,” Nobile wrote nearly 20 years ago.
“‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ warns that a predatory capitalism could prevail unless regular Americans reconcile the tension between self-interest and the communal spirit — each with a grip on our national consciousness,” he wrote.
George Bailey, on the other hand, selflessly uses whatever meager wealth he can muster to better the community, Nobile wrote.
More Top Picks Best Weighted Lap Pads For Classrooms
“Such a capitalism exists when one’s commitment to giving takes priority over self; when the well being of the self is rooted in the well being of the community, and when the profit motive is employed to meet societal needs, rather than stock dividends,” Nobile wrote.
Potter is a cold, heartless, evil man. He was his era’s version of today’s decadent, petulant billionaires. Global wealth inequality is getting worse. A handful of rich people have more wealth than billions of poor people combined.
The rich cannot be trusted to care about housing, health care, hunger and other needs of the masses. In past eras, social norms pushed the Carnegies and Rockefellers of the world to share their wealth by charitably funding libraries, concert halls and other things that contributed to the social good.
Now, more than ever, the rich use their wealth to corrupt politicians and create favorable tax policies. Elected representatives owe it to the hard working folk who do most of the living and dying and paying in towns everywhere to tax the rich and curb their worst impulses.
That’s the message “It’s a Wonderful Life” delivers when viewed through the lens of wealth inequality.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown