The Collapse of The American Dream Explained in Animation

We're doomed. pass it on

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The American dream

There's a reason that they called it a dream

Ah!

Who's there?

Cock-a-doddle-do Pile.

knocking

No no no no no

I don't have any more money.

My job sucks right now, please!

I'll have more money next month.

You can't take my house!

Is that your signature?

Oookay well just help me work something out, okay?

I mean you said I'm a good credit guy right?

I mean...hey, wait!

My dog is in there!

Nooo, don't take my Dream!

sobbing

Oh, how did this happen?

BOOM

Huh?

Hartman? Is that you?

Been a long time since the fourth grade.

Is that a time machine?

There's no need to concern yourself

with my stand accomplishments.

Best get in.

There's not much time.

crying I gotta go down to the bank

to get my life back.

They took everything!

Ooh! Bank ain't gonna help you now.

Towel in the trunk.

Extra set of balls.

Put 'em on, you're gonna need 'em.

crying you're gonna get my Dream back?

No, Pile. You are. I'm here to show you how.

ZOOM

"The Twilight Zone" theme music

Submitted for your approval,

one First National Bank.

What is a bank, you ask?

A curious place

where both space, time, and irony exist.

And yet...

don't.

Uh, are you gonna be doin' that the

whole time?

Pay attention, Pile.

Exhibit A:

Those who have come to deposit and safely

store their earned monies.

Exhibit B:

Those who need to borrow said money

for purposes...unknown.

Hey!

That's me!

Ergo, exhibit C.

The bank only has so much money

in the vault to lend out.

To people

such as you.

Hey!

Hey that's the guy!

He took my house!

Really screwin' my vibe here, Pile.

Space-time continuum, he can't hear you.

Just let me narrate.

Now, where was I? clears throat

So you see,

by the time he got to you, Pile,

His bank was out of money

But

he gave me lots of money

and charged me a lot of interest.

Yes.

That's the only way banks make money.

By making debt loans.

Debt equals money, pal.

Remember that.

Debt equals money.

The more loans they make, the more money they make.

But if they don't have any money,

then where did my money come from?

beeping You're gonna wanna take a step back, Pile.

Woah!

No way!

Yes way.

And that's nothing.

Hey buddy, need some money?

They didn't do that!

Aw, they did exactly that, Pile.

Remember, banks make money by making loans,

by selling debt, even to

...bad credit risks.

hip hop music

Yo, have some money, dude.

Just sign here.

Oh my gosh!

Mm-hm, they called it "free money".

Yeah, that's exactly what my loan guy told me,

free money!

But it ain't free,

The worst part was offering money

to people who don't even need it.

People, Pile, like you.

horn honking

You were right,

I didn't need him

I was happy here,

I didn't need it!

Why's he sad? He's makin' all that money.

Shhhhh...he's thinkin'.

Now wait fo it...

Now wait for it...

Bingo.

See the bank has loaned to everyone in town,

but to make more money they have

to loan even more.

More?

How much money do they need?

More.

ominous music Waah? What's that?

Oh ho, a black horse ridin'...

credit cards.

Wow! Look,

I mean it's gonna be okay.

Everything's gonna be okay.

What now?

Now?

We're powered with all this money,

we might as well...party.

Oh ho, this is awesome.

I needed to get my head clear

When I get back, I'm gonna straighten

all this out

I just hope Dream is doin' okay.

wolves howling

Dog barking

I'm going to get you, my pretty

Yup,

he is,

I'm sure he is.

belches

Thank you, you can put it on his tab.

Little somethin' for yourself. Mhm.

Sweet.

You know...

Wait a second, Hartman,

I just thought of something.

If I got this money from the bank...

and the bank got it from the federal reserve

dump trucks....

Go on...

Then...where does the federal reserve

get their money?

Real nice time, ladies.

Real nice.

Excuse me while I borrow these.

women scream

Say, Hartman...

why am I wearing a burglar bikini top?

because no one is allowed

inside the Fed.

Not you, not me

no American citizen

no duly elected member

of our Congress.

Not the Supreme Court.

Not the Supreme Court?

Not the Supreme Court.

Not the Justice Department, not the CIA

DIA, FBI, ATF, ATE, NBC

Not even G-O-D

knocks

Well. how come the government isn't

allowed inside its own building?

Government?

Pile, the Fed is a private bank,

owned by private stockholders.

Do not let the name "Federal" fool you,

this place about as federal as

"Federal Express"

A-a private bank?

But...private?!

Ssh!

Best to keep your voice down, Pile.

phone rings

This is Ethan Federal Reserve

Hey Ethan! Bill here, First National.

Hi there Bill, how are ya?

Good, good. We're running a little low on money.

No problem, how much you need?

Oh, how does 20 million sound?

What?

slaps

Excellent, we'll ship it over first thing

tomorrow

We-he can just call up the Fed

and ask for more money

and they give them whatever they want?

No, Pile.

The Fed don't give the banks money

the Fed loans the banks money.

The banks have to pay it back

with interest. Now come on,

time to go.

Wait, wait, wait, I still don't understand

Where does the Fed get their money?

I mean, if they're a private bank.

You said they're a private bank, right?

Okay, so who puts money into the Fed bank?

phone rings

This is Mal, United States Mint.

Hiya Mal, First National needs

another 20 millies.

We're already running the presses full

steam here, Ethan.

Gotta keep makin' loans

gotta keep the money flowin'.

Ahhh, alright, you're the Fed.

Whatever you guys say.

20 million more, by mornin'.

fog horn blows

But I don't get it...

...what's so wrong about the Fed

printing money?

Because it's unconstitutional, Pile.

Our treasury is supposed to create

our money

But now the Fed controls the printing

of America's money.

Nobody gets a friggin' dollar

that the Fed didn't print.

So?

They print the money,

then they loan it to the government,

then they charge the government interest

then the government taxes you to pay for it.

Wake up, Pile!

Gah, I don't see what the big deal is.

You know, you're right, Pile.

Wait, wait...I am?

Yeah.

I forget how effective they are at keeping

you ignorant.

Well, that's okay...hey!

I'm not ignorant!

Do you even know what money is, Pile?

claps

In the long, long ago, when people bartered

they traded things they had

for things they wanted

I'll trade you my raspberries

for that there pot pie

I-I don't want your berries.

Come on, Pile

They're sweet berries.

They're not sweet, they're old,

and I don't like berries.

Gimme that pot pie!

No!

As you can see, this bartering situation

created some problems.

Then one day, a goldsmith walked up and said

Now, everybody thinks gold is valuable

so why doesn't everybody trade gold

for things they need.

cheering

The price was set for gold

and now it was very easy to conduct commerce

because people could trade gold for all

the things they needed.

Hartman, wow, look at all my gold!

chuckling

Hey, stop them! That's my gold!

Damn thieves.

Say there, Pile.

Look, I've got a vault and some guards.

I can keep your gold safe for you.

For a small fee.

Yeah, sure, that'd be awesome!

You see, Pile.

This is how the first bank made money.

There you go, Pile.

I.O.U 100 gold coins.

Okay, great!

Come back any time and redeem your gold

when you want it.

It'll be right here.

In my vault.

Now you're holding the very first paper

money, Pile.

Wow, this is

great, it all makes sense.

Oh, that's right, it was good.

And everybody started using I.O.Us

because everybody knew the I.O.U was

as good as gold.

Wow,

this candy is really a good price, one I.O.U

I'm getting some more for later.

Hey!

Wait a minute, it was just one I.O.U

10 I.O.Us for chocolate?!

He can't just raise prices like that.

Oh, the candy man can!

sings Oh the candy man can!

Wait, that is just freakin' wrong!

It's called inflation, Pile.

It makes your I.O.Us worth less and less

until they are worth nothin'.

Less bang for the buck,

dollar ain't what it used to be.

But I worked hard and I baked

all those pot pies.

Now I have to work harder to make less?

That's not fair.

Oh, if you think that's not fair...

you're gonna love the next part.

W-what's he doin'?

How do banks make money, Pile?

Uh, by making more loans?

Oh, that's right. He's good.

See, he prints more I.O.U.s without

any more gold, loans 'em out for interest

makes a pretty penny and nobody is the wiser

Unless...

Everybody wanted their gold back at the same time.

N-n-n-no, that's my gold.

Not anymore.

What are you talking about?

I'd like to redeem my I.O.U.s please.

Thank ya very much.

Hey!

crowd yelling

I want my gold back now!

Thief! Thief!

Gotta love the bank run

Bringin' people together

See they all found out he was stealin'

made a run of the bank and as you can see

There ain't no gold to get.

Hartman!

Don't worry, Pile. Back in these times

vengeance will be yours.

Three things in this world you don't do:

Never mess with another man's woman,

never mess with another man's ego, and

most importantly,

you never mess with another man's money.

Else, the man will mess with you.

My god!

You hung him?

Yes, Pile!

Oh, we hung him. We hung him high.

And do you know why?

Well, because he was a thief?

Because, Pile,

An evil invention was born

Man discovered how to turn worthless paper...

...into gold

Thus was invented the ultimate machine

to steal real money and enslave

all the nations on Earth.

It's alive!

Oh now come on,

you're just being dramatic

I-I mean, I lost my house, but

What is that?

Explain.

A nuclear power plant?

Mhm, produces lots of electricity and

little pollution. An invention for the good

of humanity.

Okay, but what's this have to do with...

3...2... BOOM

Holy

Atomic energy. A discover more powerful

than anything man had yet conceived.

It can be used for good...

or

evil.

Now

Unlike Einstien

The goldsmith's discovery has been kept

a closely guarded secret.

It was never intended for you to see.

This discovery is called

fractional reserve banking

In the wrong hands, it's more powerful

than the nuclear bomb

in its ability to completely and utterly

destroy a nation who is subjected to its perversion.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

It is time we stop this evil secret

and the men behind it.

You're being ridiculous.

Before America is destroyed forever.

Believe it, Pile.

No, no, no, I just want my dog back.

Damn it, that's it, I give up.

Let them live in chains.

No, Hartman.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed

from time to time with the blood

of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson?

Mr. President, how do I get him to understand?

As we did, son. Remain vigilant.

Too many have hidden the truth

and the light of our liberty dims

with every passing day.

Quickly,

Take my horse.

Show him

Wait, show me what?

Where are we going?

horse neighs

Hey, stallion of liber-tie

Ride hard the hoary wind.

Oh, where are we?

Battle of Waterloo

Hold on, we gotta get through.

A money machine! There it is!

Hey, is that the same people?

Rich banker men from Germany flying

under the banner of the red shield.

They financed both sides of the war.

We must hurry!

That's him! The red shield courier.

Shoot him!

No! I'm not shootin' anyone.

Damn it, Pile!

What?

He beat everyone back

with the news of the war

and told England that Napoleon won.

The red shield bankers in London

pretended that England was doomed

and started selling their English stocks.

The English went into a selling frenzy

to get rid of worthless English money.

But, the English won? Right?

Of course they won,

but it was a trick by red shield

they waited until the stocks plummeted

to pennies and then bought

England back for nearly nothing.

What?!

They did that? How?

When the English leaders found out they

had no choice but to give themselves over

to the red shield.

Their money was gone, and they were slaves

to the red shield war debt.

Since that time, the English have

been payin' their national taxes

directly to the red shield private bankers

and people have no idea.

But the bankers bragged about what they did

to us, laughing at us all the way to the bank.

Why, it's the best business I've ever done.

If I can control a nation's wealth,

I care not who makes its laws.

Oh, is this what Jefferson wanted to show me?

No, Pile,

Look....

They're in America, too?!

The red shield banks are here, Pile.

Seeking a way to conquer our American dream.

A dream you have, Pile.

A dream...of free men.

They tried to take over our country

many times and failed because

Jefferson and the patriots vowed to stop

the evil tyrants at all costs.

By authority of eternal God,

he would not let the bankers win here.

To preserve our independance,

we must not let our rulers

load us with perpetual debt.

We must make our choice between

economy and liberty, or perfusion and servitude

Wow!

I place economy among the first

and most important of Republican virtues.

and public debt is the greatest of the

dangers to be feared.

It is incumbent upon every generation

to pay its own debts as it goes.

We must have a central bank to secure

this country's finances!

If the American people ever allow

private banks to control the issue

of their money, first by inflation

and then by deflation,

the banks and corporations that will grow

up around them will deprive the people

of their property, until, their children

will wake up homeless on the very continent

their fathers conquered.

Jefferson, you're mad!

This country will have a central bank!

crowd arguing

Who's that?

America's first secretary of treasury.

Alexander Hamilton?

Not for long.

Aaron Burr

Thomas Jefferson's vice president,

They didn't take too kindly to our

first sec treasury.

gunshot

Sweet shot, Burr.

The first attempt of the central bank

only lasted twenty years and we shut it down.

But the bankers tried again

against Ol' Hickory.

President Andrew Jackson.

You are a den of vipers and thieves.

I intend to route you out,

and by the eternal God, I will route you out.

After surviving an assassination attempt,

Jackson finally defeated the bank in 1836.

When asked what was the greatest

accomplishment in his life, Ol' Hickory replied

I killed the banks.

And those were his last words

I killed the bank.

And, with real money backed with real gold,

Our country experienced the greatest

boom in any nation's history.

Aw, it was beautiful, Pile.

But the bankers, greedy for

more power and wealth

were concocting their most ambitious plan yet

to once and for all take control

of the finances of the United States.

In 1910, a secret meeting was held

at a J.P. Morgan estate

on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia

This meeting was so secretive,

so concealed from government

and public knowledge,

that the ten attendees used code names.

clears throat noisily

I am clearly the richest man, so

I should be the one to run the

super secret central bank.

I own all the oil in America, I'm clearly

richer than you'll ever be, Hula Girl.

I should run the super secret central bank.

You're nothing compared to me, Lube Job.

I shall run the secret bank.

deep, booming voice Silence!

Supreme Master Leader,

I didn't know you were gonna be here.

I'm not,

neither are you.

Dumbass.

Oh yeah, right, right. He's so smart.

None of you shall run the bank.

We have failed in the past

because of openness,

This time the key to success is secrecy.

The people must believe that they run the bank.

Yes, brilliant!

A sneak attack. What's the plan?

We first create panic,

and then we show them the solution:

With our man in office and well-planned timing,

we will have our central bank.

And so the people think it is theirs,

We shall christen it Federal.

The Federal Reserve.

All laugh evilly

They struck on December 23rd, 1913.

When most of our Congress were at home

eating fruitcake, these bastards

I mean, bankers,

presented their treasonous act to their

newly elected accomplice, Woodrow Wilson.

Who had fortuitously already agreed

to sign it before he was even elected.

Wait,

the I.R.S.?

I thought we always had the I.R.S.?

No, Pile.

They did this,

to us, too.

The Fed now has the exclusive power

to print America's money.

They loan this money to our banks

and our government at interest,

putting immediate debt on our own money,

printing more and more so each dollar they

print becomes worth less than the one before.

ominously Merry. Christmas.

What in the hell is that?

That, Pile, is how our government now must

pay back these debts to the Fed

Your taxes do not go to your government.

They don't?

It's the greatest theft in human history.

But...

Okay, I-I mean, I sorta get what you're saying.

but it's all so confusing, and really, Hartman,

I don't see how it affects me at all.

If I had more money,

none of this would have happened.

Hartman?

1955, wow, what're we doin' here?

Oh, a little bit of shoppin'

Here, hold this. Gallon of gas? 23 cents.

Postage stamp?

3 cents.

Ounce of gold, $35.

Hot baby? Priceless.

Best be gettin' back.

Hey Hartman! I need my car, man!

Oh, was that Michael J....

Yeah, he'll be fine.

Now Pile,

Would you agree that you have the same

exact things you had in 1955?

Yeah. One stamp,

one gallon of gas, one ounce of gold, and one home.

Wow!

We just made a lot of money.

Grab, grab, grab, grab.

Hey!

Gotta pay your taxes.

But it's nice to have made all that money.

Wait! That isn't fair.

Now I actually have less money,

I can't even go buy the things I just sold.

The IRS and the Fed's inflation work together

Pile, they aren't just taxing gain,

They are taxing their inflation.

You are no richer than you were in 1955,

Now does that sound fair or American to you?

Yeah, but I mean, who doesn't hate taxes?

I hate the I.R.S. anyway.

Pile, the higher they make the inflation,

the more of your money they take.

It's thievery.

You are not paying taxes on any more,

you are paying taxes on the same.

And now you have less.

They take our property away

right in front of our eyes.

Just like Thomas Jefferson said they would.

What's that?!

Oh, they found us! Quick, my sword.

What sword?!

We don't need your bankin' machine!

I condemn you to die, damn it, die!

Pile! Throw that key bogey off my nine,

Take 'em at his knees!

But we are opposed around the world

By a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy

That relies primarily on covet means.

For expanding its sphere of influence.

What's happening?

Where am I?

I believe, perhaps, you understand now, Pile.

But you are...afraid.

JFK

Hartman!

What does this have to do with my house and my dog?

Okay, that's enough! I wanna go home now.

This is the last president to stand up to the Fed.

You must see.

On June 4th, 1963

President Kennedy signed executive order 11110.

This executive order empowered the US treasury

to issue real money without the Fed.

It would have worked.

Kennedy's plan to dismantle the

Federal Reserve machine had begun.

Six months later...

John F. Kennedy went to Dallas...

...and never returned.

No. Way.

No way they could do that.

The new president, Lyndon Johnson,

threw out Kennedy's order.

And since JFK, no president has dared

confront the secret powers

behind the Federal reserve.

They consolidate bigger and bigger banks.

Print more and more money,

accountable to no one.

Decimating our nation's wealth

for the benefit of a few.

Why? Why do this?

If they hurt us, it hurts the global bankers too.

No, Pile.

They are protected. They. Are too big to fail.

But I'm not.

Those sons of bitches!

Hm. Sons of bitches all.

The day was cold.

The wind sharp and strong.

But we were determined.

The bankers and their parasites

had us vastly outnumbered.

But their hubris made them weak.

cackling maniacally

Not like us.

dog wimpering

Not like this band of immortals

we have assembled.

We have come to take back our...

Hartman? Is that?

My dog.

Oh sh*t.

whip snapsdog wimpers

Then the inevitable.

The money kings could ignore us

no longer.

They sent an emissary.

A cog in the machine of greed

to bring about our submission.

Hank. Paulson.

Hartman. This is blasphemy.

We own the corners of the Earth.

It is futile to challenge us.

Oh I've seen that look before.

That of a predator taking in the scent of its prey.

Bold. Fearless.

The look of a free man.

You have come far, Hartman.

Farther than most.

Be smart now. Join us.

We will bring you money.

Power.

Everything you want.

You can be one of us. If you will kneel.

choir vocalizing

Madman.

You're a madman.

We're offering you everything.

What do you think this is?

This. Is. AMERICA.

rock music