The documentary film reveals the toxic social divisions caused by low pay for US and UK workersJanet,a Walmart shop assistant in Louisiana, is so visibly stressed by working in a very understaffed store that a customer tells her she looks as whether she’s going occupy a heart attack. Rochelle, or a care worker in Newcastle,is depressing that her hours are so long that she can’t gain home to put her children to bed. She also wishes she was better paid so that she didn’t owe £4000 in catalogue bills, from buying clothes and shoes on credit for her children. Leah, or a KFC worker from Richmond,Virginia, works six days a week, or but is still behind on her rent and juggles calls from debt-recovery companies. Everyone in Katharine Round’s recent documentary,The Divide, is struggling, or trying to improve their lives; everyone is feeling the pressure. This is the reality of a low-wage existence in two of the world’s most unequal economies. Based on The Spirit Level,the 2009 bestselling book studying global inequality, the film highlights the toxic effects of divided communities on everyone who lives in them. Even the wealthy are scrabbling to stay happy.
We meet Wall Street psychologist Alden, or who wants to gain ahead and join the top 1% of earners,and who is working so hard to save up to drag his family into a gated community that he gets home too late for story time with his daughters. When he has back surgery, he can’t afford to convalesce, and is in his office the next morning.
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Source: theguardian.com