The clements foundation. Park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The herb alpert foundation, supporting organizations Whose Mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society. The bernard and audre rapoport foundation. The john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. Anne gumowitz. The betsy and jesse fink foundation. The hkh foundation. Barbara g. Fleischman. And by our sole corporate sponsor, mutual of america, designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. Bill moyers welcome. 22 years ago, we began to document the story of two working families in milwaukee, wisconsin, families whose breadwinners had lost goodpaying factory jobs. Little did we know when we began in 1991 that this would become the defining story of our times. There was hardly anything more american than the belief that if you work hard, you will be able to make a living and build a better life for yourself and your children. But these two families, the stanleys and the neumanns, like millions of others who thought they were pursuing the American Dream, discovered that something had gone terribly wrong. Even as they found other jobs, went through retraining, worked any time and overtime, they were on a downward slope, working harder and longer than ever for less pay and fewer benefits. Yet, they fought courageously to hold on to their homes, school their kids, and keep from sliding into poverty. Over the years, we have followed their struggle and told their stories in a series of documentaries. Beginning tuesday, july 9th, on air and online, you can see the newest chapter, a report for the pbs series frontline titled two American Families. Right now, in this broadcast, i want to introduce you to the neumann and stanley families as we first met them. Then well talk with the authors of two important books about how the changing American Economy is affecting everyday people. First, heres the excerpt from the last installment of the story, as told in the year 2000. Terry neumann tony and i have known each other since we were probably about two years old. His mother and my mother went to School Together at Pulaski High School and our grandparents, when our parents were younger, you know, they played cards, so they were pretty good friends. I dont know, we just started seeing each other, you know, spending a lot of time at each others houses and he just asked me out, so i said okay. We were crazy about each other. We had to spend a lot of time together. You know, and i could just picture myself spending the rest of my life with him. And our expectations were, i thought, you know, you find the man that you like and get married and have a family, and get a house, a little white picket fence, you know, all those little fairy tale type things. Some of it came true, but some of it as far as the bumpy roads, i didnt expect either, you know, i knew they werent going to be all peaches and cream but, you dont think of all the bad things when youre younger. Bill moyers in the summer of 1991, we came to milwaukee, wisconsin to examine wrenching changes in the American Economy. Radio announcer the bluecollars have to adjust to the Global Economy that is now facing us all. Bill moyers the old Line Industrial jobs, with their salaries, benefits, and pension plans, were disappearing. We reported on two families who were living through these changes. Terry neumann adam, you going to take a turn . Bill moyers the neumanns were trying to make ends meet after tony, the father, lost his good paying manufacturing job. Claude stanley oh heavenly father, lord we ask we ask you to bless this food that we have prepared bill moyers the stanleys were also living on the edge after both parents lost their factory jobs. Claude stanley i cannot spend what i dont have coming in. I have learned that. Im spending more and its not coming in, and it hurts. Bill moyers we began in 1991 with portraits of each family. What do you want to be when you grow up . Klaudale stanley uh, i probably want to be a man of the law. Bill moyers and then, over the next 10 years, we returned to document the fortunes of the stanleys and neumanns. Radio announcer the nations Unemployment Rate rose to 6. 5 in february, the highest in four years. Bill moyers as the country went from recession to recovery radio announcer on wall street, the dow stood at 10,006 bill moyers to economic boom, both families would struggle to find their place in the new economy. Terry neumann then you need a Business Card to call mommy up. Jackie stanley fax it to me. Tv announcer years ago, if you wanted a small engine, you got a briggs and stratton. Bill moyers manufacturing firms like briggs and stratton made milwaukee, wisconsin, one of the great industrial cities of the heartland. For years, its Assembly Lines provided an abundance of jobs. Jackie stanley depending on which line youre on, by the time the motor gets to you, its going to be heavy. You pull the gun and press down and you give it all you got, twist it back, hook it and send it on. And if youre seconds, seconds late, you hear somebody down the line yelling, motors, motors, whats wrong with you down there. Bill moyers blue collar jobs like these made a good life possible for workers and their families. But factory jobs were melting away. By 1991, briggs and stratton alone had eliminated some four thousand in milwaukee. Among the newly unemployed were tony neumann and Jackie Stanley. Jackie stanley when the doors at briggs closed on us, and they hand us our pink slips, i knew that im out here. Its sink or swim. Bill moyers jackies husband claude had worked for another large manufacturer, ao smith. His job disappeared too. He found another one waterproofing basements for less than seven dollars an hour. Claude stanley you got to look at it on the real side. I cannot live like i was making 20 an hour. Okay that money is not there. So you might as well get it in your mind, its not there no more. So okay, bring yourself down. Nicole stanley i was young, about 14. Bill moyers did it scare you . The stanleys have five kids nicole, about to Enter College when we met her, the oldest son, keith, the twins klaudale and claude jr. , and omega. Howd your children take it when you came home and said youd lost the job over at ao smith . Or did you tell them . Claude stanley well, i told them. I told them. And they was in private school then. Bill moyers they were . Claude stanley yeah. I had to pull them out of private school. Keith stanley i think the hardest time is when you have to worry about coming home, like i say, always coming home and then theres a bill on the door saying the waters cut off. Or theres a, the guy just called saying hes going to cut off the phone. Or the electricitys off. And you have to wait for a couple of days until mom and dad can, get enough money to put it back on. Terry neumann i was working factory, he was working factory when we were dating. When we got married, we had started a family right away, so he still worked factory and i stayed home. And he made pretty good money when we were first married, you know, for a young couple with one little one on the way. Grab a couple and crack them in the pan. I dont know, we had a good time with one child so we had another one and there was adam, you know. And then i got pregnant with karissa in 86 and he had lost his job. Then, he got hired at briggs and then we thought okay, this is a very stable job, you know, we can start saving and we bought the house. Bill moyers how much is your mortgage a month . Terry neumann i believe its eight tony neumann 819. Terry neumann yeah, 820 or Something Like that. Bill moyers have you been able to make all the payments . Terry neumann no, and were behind. And today, the Mortgage Company called me again. Bill moyers again . Terry neumann yes. Bill moyers what did they say . Terry neumann i didnt answer them right now because i wanted to talk to tony. And he wasnt home. So, i wanted to talk to him. Bill moyers you must dread it when the phone rings. Terry neumann i do. I cringe. Tony neumann are you going to call him back . Terry neumann am i going to call them back . Yeah, im going to have to call him back. Tony neumann well you talked to him before. Terry neumann yeah, i know. Tony neumann and i talked to them before and i didnt care for it and you know what happened. Terry neumann yeah. Tony neumann and i told them, i dont care, if they want to foreclose, they can foreclose on, if we dont have the money, we dont have the money. You cant give them money we dont have. I would prefer you to call them other than me. Terry neumann here we go. Tony neumann mr. Carl is the same guy who i talked to before. Terry neumann really . I did send a 1,000 check in probably a few weeks back but the check was sent back to me with a letter stating, we will not accept a partial payment. I dont really think of that as a partial payment. I think of that as a basic payment and a good gesture on trying to get, caught up. Right now were going through a hard time. My husbands out of work. He went to school and hes looking for a job. And im basically just trying to buy a little time so we can get on our feet again. You know, so we can get caught up. I would think that this is just going to be a temporary thing, not a permanent thing, and i really dont want to lose my house. Are you just trying to tell me that you have to foreclose on the house, if i dont have that full amount . You would recommend it. Tony neumann is he putting this on paper . I want to know. Is he putting this on paper . Dear . Dear . Terry neumann would you like to talk to him . Bill moyers the neumanns oldest son, daniel, was just about to start third grade when we met him. Terry neumann daniel was doing very well before tony was laid off, but with the tensions around the house, he kind of withdrew a little bit. Tony neumann im not going to drop it off in no box, and i want a receipt for it. Terry neumann children do notice the tension. They do notice these things. Theyre not stupid. They can hear mom and dad getting upset. It upsets them. Tony neumann oh. Terry neumann theyve made comments like, mom, lets sell the bookshelf. Adam neumann he dont have no house. Tony neumann are you sure he didnt come out of one of them houses and hop over that way . Here and here. Terry neumann theyve got little baseball cards, mom, ill sell these, and that hurts. Because theyre willing to sell their baseball cards to help their parents out. Tony neumann yup, see them raggedy edges . You want them towards the inside so that nobody can see them. Bill moyers so, whatre you going to do . Tony neumann keep on trying. Terry neumann yeah. Tony neumann you cant stop trying. Bill moyers the country was in recession in the summer of 91. A lot of people were on the street, looking for jobs. Unemployment was the highest it had been in years. The political leaders in washington promised better days ahead. President george bush we will get this recession behind us and return to growth soon. We will get on our way to a new record of expansion and achieve the competitive strength that will carry us into the next american century. Bill moyers the president was right about the economy turning around, but there was a hitch. Many of the new jobs were either parttime, or simply didnt pay a living wage. Tony neumann ive applied over at grocery stores, hardware stores, theres Terry NeumannMcdonalds Tony neumann hardees Terry NeumannKohls Tony Neumann super america, pizza hut, walmart, sams. Most of them will not pay six dollars an hour. Theyre less than six dollars an hour. Little do they know that i need to live also. Thank you, have a nice day. Bill moyers after her layoff, Jackie Stanley began selling real estate on commission. Jackie stanley while i was on the motor line at briggs, i began to study my real estate. I went ten times for my real estate license. The tenth time, i passed. And i promised that, as soon as briggs did close the door, i was going to go on and do real estate. And thats exactly what i did. Hi joe. This is Jacqueline Stanley from homestead. Its just like anything else. Its really unsure. Okay, i just got in and it says asap. You only get excited when youre sitting at the closing and have the check in your hand. You never get over exuberant. And im learning that every day. Nicole stanley moms real estate is tough on her. Ive seen her try to wheel and deal deals. They seemed so good and at the last minute they fall apart. Jackie stanley the listing is for september. Its already Nicole Stanley and that falling apart is our mortgage, that falling apart is the car notes. And to someone else it might not seem important, that they decide not to buy the house. But for us, its a matter of not life and death, but its a matter of light and gas. And thats scary. Bill moyers workers were told they needed to retrain in order to get good paying jobs. So tony took courses in pneumatics and hydraulics and passed with perfect scores. But his new skills didnt yield a new job. He had to pick up work where he could. Tony neumann its real frustrating not being able to support my family the way i used to. Its really frustrating. I have a lot of decent qualities that i could use as skills in the labor force but nobodys really willing to give me a chance. And if they are, theyre not willing to pay a decent wage for it. Bill moyers are you working . Terry neumann no, well, im doing nuskin selling. Bill moyers what . Terry neumann nuskin. Bill moyers oh, the door to door Terry Neumann its called Nuskin International for personal care products. Make it a pretty fan now. Bill moyers with 1,300 borrowed from a relative, terry purchased Beauty Products that she tried to resell door to door. Terry neumann then you need a Business Card to call mommy up. Bill moyers for someone with no sales experience, it was risky. But for terry it made more sense than taking a fulltime job. Terry neumann you cant afford to work, you know, getting six dollars an hour and expect to pay for child care, you know, a dollar fifty an hour per child. I have three children. So, i says im going to have to find Something Else that i can do. And then when someone introduced me to this business, i decided to say, hey, you know, thats worth my while. I can make it, you know. Keith stanley you talk to your friends, they always say, well im going doing this summer. Well how about you . And youre like, well, im doing, working. Thats all you can say right now is im working. And they always ask me why do you work . Why dont you go out and have fun like the rest of the kids do . You say, you cant, because you just cant do it. You have to go out there and help your mom and dad. Bill moyers Keith Stanley, and his twin brothers, claude jr. And klaudale, started a business in 91. They called it the three sons lawn care service. Keith stanley on a good week, we can bring in 200. Thats big money to us. Its hard work but if you look in the refrigerator and you dont see nothing and you know you got five dollars in your pocket, you might want to go out and get some milk or some eggs or something. Klaudale stanley ive seen my mom on the phone talking to the bill collectors asking them when they would take, the Mortgage Company when they were about to take our house, she was pleading with the Mortgage Company. She asked the bill collectors to keep the light and sometimes the gas on and that makes me want to do more, a lot more. Bill moyers the stanleys mostly africanamerican neighborhood had been traditionally supported by factory jobs. But with those jobs gone, housing values fell and so did real estate commissions. Jackie wanted to sell in other neighborhoods, but ran into resistance. Jackie stanley it was on the market for a year and didnt sell. Bill berland its because they didnt have somebody as good as you. Jackie stanley okay. Bill berland people of color really have a much more difficult time in our business making a living than white people. It may be a situation where she may call for a showing and not get the courtesy of a call back. Maybe her client that she takes in to a Mortgage Lender has a much more difficult time, even if theyre credit is good, getting the mortgage. Jackie stanley all right, fax it to me. I cant sell suburbs. I cant sell the most affluent areas here. And that hurts. But theyll call me for central city. You get the Peanut Butter and the honey. And this is the flour and im giving you one pound of butter. Terry neumann i dont like having to go and ask and say i have no food in the house, can you help me out makes me feel very uncomfortable. Id rather be on the giving side than the receiving. I dont know if youre going to be using all of these or not, terry. They have Peanut Butter, flour. You can take what you like or Terry Neumann we do a lot of baking and the kids eat a lot of Peanut Butter. Then we have some pork here. I understand that if you put it over noodles or rice and maybe add a little onion that its quite palatable. Neumann family bless us, oh lord, and these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive through thy bounty, through christ, our lordam tony neumannr a lot . Karissa neumann a little bit. Terry neumann normally i make good meals, the meat and the vegetables and salads and all the fixings. You know its not a large amount but theyre good wellbalanced meals. And now that i cant make wellbalanced meals, i mean thats, it gets to the point where you sit there and think, oh g