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Bill Moyers follows up with two Milwaukee families he first profiled in a 1991 documentary who, after suffering layoffs from blue-collar employment, now struggle to provide for their families while working less-secure jobs.

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00:00Tonight on Frontline, two American families, both doing their best to hang on to the American
00:12dream. But nearly every day is a struggle. Will they make it? For the last five years,
00:21correspondent Bill Moyers has been documenting their lives, living on the edge.
00:30Funding for Frontline is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
00:35and by annual financial support from viewers like you. This is Frontline.
00:50Additional funding is provided by Mutual of America, building America's future through pension
00:57and retirement programs, encouraging dialogue and discussion. The Spirit of America. Mutual of America.
01:14Good afternoon, Milwaukee. The evolution of your own work career. Are you doing what you thought
01:19you'd be doing? What do you think you're going to be doing in the future? Today, our state stands at the
01:25forefront of our nation. Our state is in a strong position to meet the challenges of the city. A new
01:30survey of the Milwaukee area reflects what many work-a-day employees already know too well.
01:34Prices keep going up while paychecks stay the same. Manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin have declined by
01:40two percent over the past year, compared with a 3.1 percent decrease nationally. Years ago,
01:46if you wanted a small engine, you got a Briggs and Stratton. Slowly but surely, that has changed in the past 10 years.
01:53Foreign manufacturers have carved out a respectable share of the small engine market.
01:57When are you going to call them back? You want to call them back? Yeah, I'm going to have to call them back.
02:12You talked to them before. And I told them, I don't care if they want to foreclose, they can foreclose.
02:20If we don't have the money, we don't have the money. I would prefer you to call them other than me.
02:29Here we go. In 1991, Terry and Tony Newman were on the verge of losing their home.
02:37They couldn't make their mortgage payments because Tony had lost his good-paying factory job
02:42at Briggs and Stratton. I did send a thousand-dollar check in a few weeks back, but the check was sent
02:52back to me with a letter stating, we will not accept a partial payment. And when I tried to explain that
02:58over the phone when somebody called, I don't really think of that as a partial payment. I think of that
03:03as a basic payment and a good gesture on trying to get caught up. Right now, we're going through a
03:09hard time. My husband's out of work. He went to school, and he's looking for a job. And I'm
03:16basically just trying to buy a little time so we can get on our feet again, you know, so we can get
03:21caught up. I would think that this is just going to be a temporary thing, not a permanent thing,
03:25and I really don't want to lose my house. Or are you just trying to tell me that you have to
03:30foreclose on the house if I don't have that full amount? You would recommend it.
03:40Is he putting this on paper? I want to know, is he putting this on paper?
03:45Here.
03:50Tony is one of about 50,000 factory workers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose lives have been shaken
03:59by an economic earthquake that has changed the American workplace. Good-paying jobs are heading
04:05south or out of the country, and workers like Tony Newman are searching desperately for new jobs
04:11that will support their families. I've applied over at grocery stores, hardware stores,
04:18McDonald's, Hardee's, Kohl's, Super America, Pizza Hut, Walmart, Sam's. They're willing to pay me six
04:28dollars, six dollars and a quarter. Little do they know I need to live also.
04:33When the doors of Briggs closed on us and they hand us our pink slips, I knew that I'm out here. It's sink or swim.
04:46Jackie Stanley also worked at Briggs and Stratton, Milwaukee's largest private employer. Before
04:52her layoff, she was making about $32,000 a year. Jackie's husband, Claude, was laid off from
05:02another large Milwaukee manufacturer. You got to look at it on the real side. I cannot live like I
05:09was making $20 an hour. Okay, that money is not there. So you might get in your mind, it's not there
05:14no more. So, okay, bring yourself down. In the early 90s, families like the Stanleys and Newmans were
05:23thrown into an emerging new economy built on light manufacturing and service jobs. It was a time when
05:30unemployment hit record lows. But many of the new jobs offered only part-time work and no benefits.
05:38And they paid lower wages. You figure it out, gas, electric, telephone bill, plus food for a family.
05:46You figure it out, minimum wage will not make it. Over the last five years, we have followed the Newmans
05:53and the Stanleys as they adjust to the local realities of the new global economy. We met them
05:59in 1991. We came back in 93 and returned in 95.
06:09It freaked me out when mom said, your dad's been laid off. And I was like, nah, dad wasn't laid off. And I
06:17started thinking, you know, at the time I was going to a private school. And I'm sitting there going,
06:21please, my dad not laid off. Found out dad was laid off. He took this lower paying job.
06:27And then mom had the load on her. Then mom got laid off. The income just went soof.
06:34I don't think any other family probably could survive. Our family is fortunate. Keith is up under me. He's
06:4114 years old. Claudel and Claude is a set of twins. They're 11 years old. And my little sister Omega is 10.
06:50My father's been laid off for five years. He went into waterproofing.
06:54When I got laid off, they wanted me to be on the welfare. But I could not stand in that line. I said,
06:59this is not me. This is not me. They wanted to give me food. I said, this ain't me. I don't want no food now.
07:04I said, I got my strength right here. I will find me a job. And I found me a job.
07:09Claude Stanley found a job waterproofing basements. It paid $6.50 an hour, about a third of what he had
07:17been making. This was practice on. My mother, she got a real estate license.
07:26Can I shake your hand? The reality is that it's rough. And I'm always smiling in spite of electric
07:32bills, gas bills, telephones. They're due just like anybody else's. But I can't afford to say,
07:39I'm having a rough time. Please buy this house. Hi, Joe. Yeah, this is Jacqueline Stanley from Homestead.
07:46When the Stanleys had factory jobs, they took home over $60,000 between them in a good year.
07:52And that included health benefits. That security is gone.
07:59Mom's real estate is tough on her. I've seen her try to will and deal deals.
08:04They seem so good. And at the last minute, they fall apart.
08:07Call me because we wrote this for the listing is for September. It's already
08:12That falling apart is our mortgage. That falling apart is the car notes.
08:18And to someone else, it might not seem important that they decide not to buy the house. But for us,
08:22it's a matter of not life and death, but it's a matter of light and gas. And that's scary.
08:30When we met Tony in 1991, he believed retraining would give him skills for a better job.
08:35He'd just spent a year in school, getting perfect scores in pneumatics and hydraulics.
08:41But when he finished, there was still no work. Thank you. Have a nice day.
08:45So he was picking up odd jobs to help support the family.
08:58I've tried doing things. I work in a garage on woodworking things when I get angry and that helps
09:04once in a while. It's real frustrating not being able to support my family the way I used to. It's really frustrating.
09:15The Newmans have three children, Carissa, Adam and Daniel, who was just about to start third grade when we met him.
09:27Daniel was doing very well before Tony was laid off. But with the tensions around the house,
09:34he kind of withdrew a little bit.
09:40Children do notice the tension. They do notice these things. They're not stupid.
09:44They can hear Mom and Dad getting upset. It upsets them.
09:52They've made comments to, like, Mom, let's sell the bookshelf. They've got little baseball cards. Mom,
09:58I'll sell these. And that hurts. Because they're willing to sell their baseball cards to help their parents out.
10:04Get your foot in there.
10:12Hey, all right.
10:13And this one. You want to put that in there?
10:16Okay.
10:17With her husband, Tony, out of work, Terry Newman began looking for ways to make money.
10:23With $1,300 borrowed from a relative, she purchased beauty products that she tried to resell door to door.
10:29And then you need a business card to call Mommy up.
10:32For someone with no sales experience, it was risky. But for Terry, it made more sense than taking a full-time job.
10:42You can't afford to work, you know, getting $6 an hour and expect to pay for child care, you know, $1.50 an hour per child. I have three children.
10:52So I said, I'm 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, that's worth my while. I can make it, you know.
11:07Look in the mirror and feel your face and say, well, you know, it's softer. It's the complexion, the color. Yeah.
11:14You talk to your friends, they always say, well, I'm going doing this this summer. Well, how about you? And you're like, well, I'm doing working. That's all you can say right now is I'm working.
11:32And they're always asking, why you work? Why don't you go out and have fun like the rest of the kids do? Say, you can't. You just can't do it. You have to go out there and help your mom and dad.
11:41Fourteen-year-old Keith Stanley and his twin brothers, Claude Jr. and Claude Ale, started a business in 1991. They called it the Three Sons Long Care Service.
11:54How much money would you like to make when you grow up?
11:57Probably about $100 million, something like that. $300 million, something like that.
12:08Do you think you will?
12:09Yeah.
12:11I see my mom on the phone talking to the bill collectors, asking them when they were taking the mortgage company, when they were about to take her house.
12:26She was pleading with the mortgage company.
12:29She asked the bill collectors to keep the light and sometimes the gas on.
12:34And, um, that makes me want to do more. A lot more.
12:43The Stanleys live in an African-American neighborhood traditionally supported by manufacturing jobs.
12:50But as the jobs disappeared, housing values fell.
12:53And so did real estate commissions.
12:56Jackie wanted to sell in other neighborhoods.
12:58But she ran into resistance.
13:00It was on the market for a year and didn't sell.
13:04It's because they didn't have someone as great as you.
13:07People of color really have a much more difficult time in our business making a living than white people.
13:15It may be a situation where she may call for a showing and not get the courtesy of a callback.
13:23It may be her client that she takes into a mortgage lender has a much more difficult time, even if their credit is good getting a mortgage.
13:33All right.
13:33Fax it to me.
13:34I can't sell suburbs.
13:37I can't sell the most affluent areas here.
13:41And that hurts.
13:43But they'll call me for Central City.
13:48Fax it to the Lord, and these are gifts which are all to receive.
13:51For they all take you, Christ our Lord, amen.
13:54A little bit or a lot?
13:59A little bit.
14:00Normally, I make good meals.
14:03The meat and the vegetables and salads and all the fixings.
14:07You know, it's not a large amount, but they're good, well-balanced meals.
14:11And now that I can't make well-balanced meals, I mean, it gets to the point where you sit there and think,
14:16Oh, God, what am I going to make for dinner tonight?
14:19You know, and it's just emotionally exhausting.
14:24It would be good on this.
14:27Cheese.
14:27Oh, well.
14:28But I have cheese.
14:30So would garlic bread, too.
14:43Holding in there, okay?
14:44Mm-hmm.
14:45Okay.
14:46You get the peanut butter and the honey.
14:49And this is the flour.
14:51And you give me one pound of butter.
14:52I don't like having to go and ask and say, I have no food in the house.
14:56Can you help me out?
14:57Makes me feel very uncomfortable.
14:59I'd rather be on the giving side than the receiving.
15:01Do you want to pack up the commodities?
15:03I don't know if you're going to be using all of these or not, Terry.
15:05They have peanut butter, flour.
15:08You can take what you like.
15:09Do a lot of baking and the kids eat a lot of peanut butter.
15:11And then we have some pork here.
15:12I understand that if you put it over noodles or rice and maybe add a little onion because it's quite palatable.
15:18Come on, you lousy coward.
15:27Come on and take your medicine.
15:29Come on.
15:30This is going to be your Waterloo.
15:32Your animal.
15:33Your...
15:34Just kidding, big guy.
15:38Baby in the world.
15:40Baby.
15:41What are you doing today?
15:44Fixing the door.
15:46Oh, yeah.
15:47Look who's here, Batman.
15:49In the kitchen door.
15:50Oh, my God.
15:52Yeah, I'll think about it.
15:53Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
15:55I've been getting very angry lately.
15:58I've been losing my temper quite a bit.
16:01I don't know what it is.
16:02I tried to get it under control, but it's just really frustrating.
16:07You've got all these pressures on you, and you don't have no way to release it, really.
16:11How do you deal with this pressure, the anger?
16:13I can't.
16:16It's very difficult.
16:18Yeah, our marriage is really on the rocks.
16:20This is a really difficult time.
16:22This is a real difficult time.
16:23I've been thinking about a divorce now for a while.
16:26Why?
16:27I can't deal with the situation.
16:30I'm just having a real hard time dealing with it.
16:33So divorce is an easier way to have it?
16:36Yeah, I think so.
16:38I don't know what to do anymore.
16:40I'm really at a loss.
16:41You feel guilty?
16:43Yeah, I do.
16:43I feel I should be supporting my family.
16:46You think he really wants a divorce, or is this just an escape?
16:49I think it's an escape, and I just think he figures it's an easy way out.
16:53But really, the problems are still going to be there, because he's still going to have to support us,
16:57and I feel it's going to be worse.
16:58I just feel it's just a tough time, and if we can just get through this,
17:05you know, then we'll be back to the life that we had before.
17:07We can just get through this, and we'll be back to the life that we had before.
17:14Good morning, everybody.
17:41Good morning, everybody.
17:43We gather on this Sunday morning in faith
17:46to praise our triune God
17:48in the name of the Father and of the Son
17:51and of the Holy Spirit.
18:04When we returned to Milwaukee in 1993,
18:07hope was in the air.
18:09I, William Jefferson Clinton, do solemnly swear
18:13that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.
18:19That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.
18:23From the way he ran his campaign,
18:26it was more like he would concentrate on America.
18:30And the way he put it was that he wasn't going to send more jobs
18:35or factories out of the country and bring more in.
18:39And I guess that in the next four years,
18:44maybe you might have openings and maybe you might not have to film as many people.
18:50And more people had jobs and things probably work out.
18:57My fellow citizens.
18:58I think this president, I think I can trust and relate to somehow.
19:03Four more years, four more years, but you need to grow up a little bit.
19:06Because for me, I've been there with Reagan, Bush, and now Clinton.
19:11I'm not saying I don't trust presidents.
19:14It's that you say a lot of stuff to get on top.
19:15Even if I was running for something, I'd say it.
19:18I'd be like, everybody get free candy and everything, you know.
19:21So you say a lot of stuff to get on top.
19:23It all comes down to what you're going to do when you get on top.
19:26To renew America, we must revitalize our democracy.
19:29It's not so much up to just our president.
19:31I would love to say it's the president and that when he gets in office,
19:36my jobs will be secure and all that, but I just don't feel it.
19:40As much as I'd like to say it, his name is not G-O-D, it's Clinton.
19:45And see the promise of America.
19:49Americans deserve better.
19:51And in this city today, there are people who want to do better.
20:01Tony got a job, you know.
20:06It was such a happy day, you would not believe.
20:08I mean, we were like, gee, if we had the money right now,
20:12we'd probably go and celebrate, but we don't.
20:14So we just, you know, it was a real exciting day.
20:17I mean, it's like you wanted to get on the phone and say,
20:18oh my God, Tony got a job.
20:19Oh, Tony got a job, you know.
20:21It was like winning the lottery, you know.
20:23I mean, you just, oh, he got a job.
20:26After that, there was just a lot more tension just lifted off your shoulders.
20:29I invited the Newmans around the Lord's table
20:32because a year ago, they may not have had as much to be thankful for, right?
20:37You didn't have a steady job then, did you?
20:39That's a fact.
20:40That's a fact.
20:41What is the fact today?
20:43I have more than enough work.
20:44More than enough work.
20:47God is with us.
20:49It's just a real relief to be working.
20:53I have a sense of worth.
20:54It's a big relief to be able to know
20:58that I can support a family again.
21:01It's a big load off my shoulders.
21:03It's everywhere to be you guys.
21:05Amen.
21:08Amen.
21:11Amen.
21:12Amen.
21:21More coffee for Daddy.
21:23I'm still scared because of being laid off so many times.
21:29Some people do call me money hungry because I eat up the overtime.
21:33But I've seen how a couple months without income can do to you.
21:38I won't feel safe enough until I have like $20,000 in the bank.
21:46Tony's new job paid $10 an hour,
21:48working the night shift in a small non-union factory.
21:52Still months behind on the mortgage,
21:54he was working an exhausting amount of overtime to try and catch up.
21:58The kids are off to school at 8 o'clock in the morning,
22:03so I can see them from 7 o'clock when they get up
22:06until 8 o'clock when they leave.
22:08And then I don't get home until 12 o'clock at night
22:12and they're already in bed sleeping.
22:14It does bother me not to be able to see the kids as much as I used to.
22:19It does bother me a lot.
22:20But at this point in time right now,
22:23having money coming in consistently is more important
22:29than spending time with my children all the time like I used to.
22:36Can you make sure Daniel reads that book on the chemistry step real good?
22:42Terry and Tony's marriage survived,
22:46but there were still pressures.
22:48Tony's job offered limited potential,
22:50and his health plan paid only part of his medical expenses.
22:54Plus, his long hours put a strain on the family.
22:56Come on, let's pray.
23:00Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
23:03We are missing somebody.
23:04We're missing Tony.
23:05Daniel's putting the snake away.
23:07So a lot of times we're here by ourselves,
23:09and it gets kind of lonely because we have to do things just with the four of us.
23:12And sometimes I feel like a single parent.
23:14In the Father, in the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
23:16Bless us, O Lord, in these high gifts
23:18which we are about to receive from they bombed you through Christ our Lord, amen.
23:22Father, in the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
23:24Amen.
23:24Amen.
23:24Amen.
23:26This is the hand that Dad got from work.
23:31At Christmas time.
23:33Terry still found herself having to choose between making money
23:37and staying home with the kids.
23:39The choice for now was to bring in some extra income.
23:43Selling beauty products had wound up costing her money,
23:47so she took part-time work caring for an elderly woman.
23:50She left the kids with a relative.
23:52In 1993, Claude Sr. was still waterproofing basements.
24:13I do my best.
24:15If I'm going to come out here and do a job, I'm going to make sure it's done right.
24:19You know, I don't care who work with me, we're going to do it right if I be here half the night to get it done.
24:23He was now earning about $7 an hour, $0.50 more than in 1991.
24:29Now I'm putting the long hours in.
24:34You're getting money, but it's not that much, but you're getting longer hours.
24:38But, you know, when you get home, you're tired.
24:41Yeah?
24:41Yeah, we're tired, you know.
24:43And you said, what the use?
24:46You know, why I keep struggling?
24:49Why I keep going, but you've got to say, I'm going to make it.
24:52I'm going to make it.
24:53But the door got to open up somewhere.
24:55It's got to open up somewhere.
24:59In 1993, the three sons were still in business.
25:02Keith Stanley, now 16, and the 14-year-old twins, Claude L. and Claude Jr.
25:08We do a lot of off-hand jobs, odd jobs, like doing this and painting rooms and pulling up carpet, taking out furniture and stuff like that.
25:18Most of the money goes to the bank, and if it doesn't, either we're helping our sister out in college,
25:23or we're helping out buying our own shoes, buying our equipment.
25:27So it doesn't just get spent on whatever you want.
25:30Keith had set a goal, to become the first boy on either side of the family to graduate high school and go on to college.
25:37I try to instill in them, you're going to need to get an education.
25:42You've got to go to college.
25:44Without a college education, you won't make it.
25:49Daniel!
25:52Daniel!
25:53Daniel, look for your homework!
25:55Get in here!
25:56And your backpack!
25:58And shut the door!
25:59With me working and Tony working, we had different shifts, and we weren't all together all the time at the same time.
26:11Carissa, where is it?
26:13How could he lose a backpack?
26:14In the room!
26:16Daniel started getting very quiet and kept to himself a lot, and his attitude just changed a little bit.
26:25You know, he got really distant.
26:29Hey, look at this.
26:32Homework, not finished.
26:34Why?
26:35Look at this.
26:36And then Daniel started having problems with his grades in school.
26:42There's three pages here.
26:44I'm not signing none of this.
26:45Let me see that.
26:46Some kids almost blame themselves for what's going on in a family, you know, and that they have to realize this is a situation.
26:56It's a tough situation for the whole family.
26:58Everybody's doing the best they can.
27:00You love him.
27:01You're there for him, and you'll always be there for him.
27:04Danny Newman?
27:05A lot of our children here at school are getting themselves up in the morning, coming home to an empty house at night.
27:14Ideally, we would have a parent there to get a kid off and someone there to receive them when they come home at night,
27:18but that's, you know, in the fairyland world, I guess, and, you know, we do what we have to do to survive.
27:26Because of Daniel's problems at school, Terry quit her job.
27:31She wanted to be home for the kids.
27:35I'll tell you what we'll do.
27:38I'll tell you what.
27:39I'll give you this one.
27:40Because that's the very same house.
27:42Yeah.
27:44Are you planning on going to keep the hedges on there?
27:46Our family would be what you would say is what the average Americans are going through.
27:51We get hard times, and with my kind of work that I do, which is real estate, I'm a commission.
27:57I get paid on commission.
27:58It goes up and down, and it's rough.
28:01Don't go in the back hallway.
28:02The dog's there.
28:03Like yesterday, I thought I'd have $2,000.
28:06By the time it was over with, I barely walked out with $1,500.
28:09And then you haven't thought of taking your taxes out either?
28:13This one.
28:14But see, again, look who you're talking to.
28:16You're talking to Jacqueline Stanley.
28:18And it's not like you're talking to a little child.
28:21I've seen hard times, and I'm trying to go with the flow, I guess.
28:28And there's something that I always say, and I know you may not understand this, but it says,
28:32so a man think as so as he.
28:33If I think poverty all the time, I'll act that way.
28:35I can't afford to talk negative and then allow my children to see me that way, down or depressed.
28:50Jackie Stanley persevered at selling real estate, but it seemed her neighborhood was coming apart at the seams.
28:56Even on this street, one block west of my house, just about every door here has a steel door is here.
29:05I have a six-foot fence.
29:07There was kill you written on the back of my fence.
29:09If you don't join the gangs, to my oldest son, Keith.
29:14Just blocks away from her house, Jackie's uncle was murdered by an intruder.
29:18All I can tell them is keep trying.
29:35Every day, I have to encourage myself, and I have to encourage them.
29:39Many times, Keith has said to me, what's use, Mom?
29:42He did a 3.5.
29:44What does it matter?
29:46And I said, you've got to keep going.
29:48Someone called us the other day when the snow was heavy, and we were out shoveling snow,
29:55and someone stood at the window and said, look at your family, it's perfect.
29:59And they called us the beaver family.
30:01I know they meant to say cleaver, but, and I said, I said, we see you together all the time.
30:07It looks good, but it looks good.
30:10But no matter how it looks on the outside, I'm concerned.
30:14After their layoffs, the Stanleys had switched their kids to public school, but Jackie worried
30:20about them, and one day a phone call confirmed her fears.
30:23They had called me that Claudel was going on life support because the child choked my son
30:31until he stopped breathing.
30:33He came from behind me and started choking me and had me in some wrestling hole, and so I couldn't breathe.
30:42And so I dropped to the ground, and last thing I remember was teachers coming and praying.
30:51By the time I had gotten there, they had his chest exposed, and they were telling me that Dale was now,
31:01had stopped breathing, that's all they could tell me.
31:04They said they can't revive Claudel.
31:06And when I got there, I saw the teacher on her knees praying Hail Mary full of grace over my son.
31:13And all I could say was, Dale remembered Jesus.
31:20You know, you hear about violence, and you don't think it's going to hit your kids, you know.
31:23And you find out your kid's getting choked at school and near death, you know,
31:28and you're on your job, and you get a phone call saying, come quick,
31:32your kid is on his way to the hospital, and you, you know,
31:35and it's like right on your front doorstep now.
31:39I think it's really not the school in general.
31:46It's not the school board.
31:48It's not the Milwaukee Public School.
31:50It's each child.
31:52If each child made in their mind that I'm going to come to school and learn today,
31:57I'm going to get the grades, I'm going to be the next Bill Clinton,
32:01I'm going to be the next Thurgood Marshall,
32:03if they would do that, then I would think that we would not have the problems with inner city school.
32:11Because it's not, it's not the location.
32:14It's, it's the, it's the child.
32:15It's the parents.
32:16It's the person.
32:17It's the upbringing.
32:18What happens to a lot of people, you get whooped by society.
32:21Society will tear you down because you come in there with all these dreams,
32:25and you're going to do it.
32:26You're young.
32:27By the time you hit 30 or 40 years old, you don't lost several jobs.
32:32You know, your family, getting divorced and stuff, and you give up and you get tired.
32:36And I think we need more hope.
32:39And by getting more hope, we need more jobs and more good examples of people making it in life.
32:45Daniel, Daniel, let me see, let me see, please.
32:52Oh, no, no, no, I want to see.
32:53Oh, come on, come on.
32:55I've been waiting for this.
32:57Oh, I've got these and all things.
33:00You have what?
33:00Having given up on her job, Terri was home with the kids,
33:04encouraging them and helping with homework.
33:07A's, C's, C's.
33:10Well, you went up in math, you had a U, you went to a C.
33:12I wasn't sure if it was the right decision, but I thought it's either that
33:18or my kids are just going to be having a worse problem.
33:22Wow.
33:23I am proud of your efforts, Dan.
33:25I know you could do it.
33:28Keep up the good work.
33:30Good job, Dan.
33:32Daniel, I've noticed, has really improved.
33:35And he's gotten all of his assignments done.
33:38I think a lot of it has to do with you being home when he gets there now.
33:42Julie mentioned what kind of plants she wanted, tomatoes.
33:50Yeah, she wanted tomatoes.
33:57It helps out as far as a lot of the stuff that you grow, you can eat.
34:05It just helps save money a little bit.
34:07I learned this from my mom and dad and grandma and all of these people who grew up during their depression.
34:15They figured, hey, seeds don't cost a whole lot.
34:19You can learn a lot by talking to some of these older adults as far as what they had to go through.
34:26It makes it seem like you don't have it that bad.
34:28Tony continued working lots of overtime.
34:33Then he got sick and lost 10 days' pay.
34:36He caught pneumonia and he collapsed.
34:41Yeah, they put me on an IV for, I don't know, about an hour and a half or so.
34:46And they had to rest and that was that.
34:50And you just take off of work?
34:51Yeah, they told me I should be off of work for about a week and a half.
34:55From dehydration.
34:58Yeah.
34:59And they said that was caused by stress.
35:02And you get the bill and it's like 300 and something dollars.
35:05And I said, just for a taxi service to the hospital?
35:07Oh, no.
35:08I'm like, come on.
35:10And Tony's like, oh, God, there's another bill.
35:15Tony's new medical expenses hit them hard.
35:18They were still paying off the debts from when he was unemployed.
35:20Just with the mortgage, we got, well, three months behind.
35:26And it will take us two years to get to pay that back because they tack on the interest
35:32and penalty charges and whatever else.
35:36You know, so that three months takes two years.
35:38That's a long time.
35:40So whatever extra money we have, we send it.
35:43Only because we want to make sure that in the next year we have it paid off
35:47so they don't take the house.
35:50Okay, let's get these numbers down.
35:56Let's see what we've got here.
36:00Looks like you've got a medical deduction there.
36:03Mm-hmm.
36:04In April 1993, the Newmans were proud that Tony was reporting income
36:08for the first time in two years.
36:10Oh, you don't have enough taxes paid in.
36:32You know, $900.
36:33$900.
36:39$900.
36:41Where am I going to get $900?
36:47We think about our retirement.
36:49We think about the kids' education.
36:51We really think about a lot of things.
36:52But right now it's just like opening up one of those mail catalogs
36:57and wishing, you know, the wish book.
37:03But it will come true someday, hopefully.
37:05It will come true someday.
37:35returned to Milwaukee in 1995, Keith Stanley was one step closer to his goal of attending college.
37:43When you're raising them, you don't have time to watch them grow up. You have time to feed them,
37:48clothe them and wipe their nose and see that nobody's beating the heck out of them out here
37:53on the street. And you don't watch until suddenly this day hits me dead in the face. And I wasn't,
37:59I knew he was graduating. I knew he was in the 12th grade, but I didn't know, you know.
38:11Today, um, it's like an end of an era, like when Michael Jordan, you know, retired. It's the end of
38:17an era. It's like a time where it's the three of us and he's moving on to college and going on to
38:26bigger, better things. And I guess we're here just to pick up the flag and try to do what we can,
38:31try to follow him behind him and look at him as a role model. And, you know, if they say we don't
38:36have too many role models, we can use him as a role model, our older brother. It makes me very happy.
38:42I've been talking for years. I can't talk.
39:13He's the first one.
39:19Mama's not crying cause she's hurting. I'm crying because I did it. God, me and God did this.
39:25It's going to be so many memories when he walks across that stage today.
39:46Keith Kenyatta Stanley.
39:54That's my boy. That's my son.
39:58Jackie Stanley's son.
39:59May each of you enjoy the richest of a full life and achieve success in your chosen fields of endeavor.
40:12Congratulations. Thank you.
40:15I'm kind of nervous and kind of excited, but I'm ready to go on and move on now. Cause it's like been a long four years at high school.
40:27I'm hoping that after I graduate, I really, you know, stay in college. Cause I know a lot of times people,
40:31they go out there expecting high hopes and like the world let them down. I want to really go out there and make some noise in the world.
40:39Yeah, that's what I want to do.
40:44Oh, God, I thank you, Jesus.
40:48In the spring of 95, Tony Newman finally moved on to the day shift. Now he and Terry were able to spend more time with the kids.
41:08They're doing great. They're healthy. They're doing well in school.
41:12And they're getting big. They're growing. They're just huge. They're growing out of shoes and pants and clothes.
41:20Tony was now making around $13 an hour, still less than he had made at Briggs and Stratton.
41:26The Newmans had managed to catch up on their mortgage, but they had no savings and still lived paycheck to paycheck.
41:32Why would I be waiting?
41:34Morning. Morning, Barb.
41:36Terry's latest part-time job was at a school cafeteria.
41:44Paying $6.91 an hour, it let her get home before the kid.
41:49I only work three hours, so I don't get any benefits right now.
41:56I might get extra time if somebody's sick.
41:59Any extra time that I can get, I grab.
42:03Because it helps.
42:03In a typical day, Terry took home less than $20 after taxes.
42:11Oh, I have to go by my dad's house. He went on vacation for three weeks.
42:16And I have to go check out the house.
42:18Hey, Jackie.
42:19Hi.
42:21I want me to scream.
42:22Good to see you.
42:22Thank you. Good to see you.
42:24This is new.
42:26Yeah.
42:26What's going on?
42:28We put the house up on the market.
42:29And it was after we took Keith to school, you know, that a lot of things have been going on.
42:36So we just said, the neighborhood's changing.
42:39And we, right now, feel that we should sell the house.
42:43Every year, it's getting worse. Gangs are moving in.
42:47We're right here.
42:48I have $2,800 worth of steel up to my house.
42:51Yeah.
42:51I saw the steel doors, the protected by the alarm system, beware of the dogs.
42:58We have it all.
42:58And I was going to make up a sign, ignore the dog, ignore the alarm.
43:01And you're going to make the six o'clock news.
43:03I've had it.
43:04I have had it.
43:05Where will you go, though?
43:06Claude and I have no idea where we're going to go.
43:09If we get the price for our house, we'll take it and we'll run.
43:13But where, I don't know.
43:14This is where I'm going today, Charissa.
43:20Pick up and deliveries.
43:22Must have CDL, competitive wages, and excellent benefits.
43:27And that's what we need, benefits.
43:30Apply in person.
43:35I studied and took a test at the motor vehicle department and got a CDL license.
43:40And CDL license stands for commercial driver's license.
43:44I am a class B-C, which means I can drive dump trucks, straight truck with air brakes.
43:51I'm hoping to get into a pretty good company that's going to offer me like eight hours a day
43:57and give me some decent benefits like medical, dental, and exam.
44:02I remember you're telling us a couple of years ago you thought it was so important that as a
44:06mother you were home with the kids.
44:08And you know, Daniel was having a few difficulties then, approaching teenage years.
44:12Right.
44:12You just felt it was best if you could be here.
44:16I still feel that way.
44:17But under the circumstances, we're put into a situation.
44:22We don't have a choice.
44:24You know, we have to sacrifice.
44:25You've got to do it or...
44:26Either we can't make the ends meet, you know, or we stay home with the kids.
44:37Knowing he wouldn't make the living he needed at his present job,
44:40Tony had been retraining again.
44:42What are you doing outside?
44:44I was waiting for you.
44:45I'm always learning.
44:46You always have to learn.
44:48When you stop learning, then you've got a problem.
44:51You've got to do that in order to stay in the job market too.
44:55The more you know, the better off you are.
45:01The honors program.
45:04Congratulations on your outstanding performance on the asset.
45:07Tony got near perfect scores, this time in thermoplastic molding.
45:14Now he was up for a new job.
45:16I went and got an interview and I'm waiting to hear sometime by the end of the month if I have the job or not.
45:25And that doesn't make you happy?
45:27It makes me happy because it's really what he wanted.
45:30I told him he had to make the decision and if that's...
45:33If he felt that that's what he wanted, to go ahead and do it.
45:36But?
45:37It's a cut and pay right off.
45:38It's a cut and pay.
45:40They do have good benefits.
45:41How much do you lose if you take it?
45:43Oh, probably about two and a half, three dollars an hour.
45:48But the thing is, four years down the road, I'll be making more money
45:54than I would ever dream of making here.
45:57What is it going to be there when he gets out?
46:02You know what I mean?
46:03They promise you that it's going to be there.
46:05Just, just...
46:06Four years, they're going to, they're going to stick you through school.
46:10They're going to train you on the job for four years.
46:13Now that is going to cost them a lot of money to put you through school and train you.
46:20And why would they do all of that and want to kick you out?
46:25If they do kick me out after the four years, I would have a journeyman's card.
46:30And you can go pretty much anywhere once you get a journeyman's card.
46:34I know. I don't want to burst your bubble.
46:35Okay.
46:37But what happens if they can't compete with the neighbor?
46:40As you say, it's happened twice to Tony.
46:42Right. So I'm, I'm really reluctant.
46:45I mean, I'm happy for him because he's excited about this job, but I'm still...
46:51You know, a company can just, I mean, I've seen it.
46:54It can just pick up and move.
46:55Hey, what's up everybody? This is Keith.
47:05I'm inside my dorm room. Just trying to let you know how everything is doing.
47:09In September of 1995, Keith started at Alabama State University.
47:14I'm taking each step at a time. It's kind of harder than I thought, but I can do it.
47:18How do you afford to keep Keith in college?
47:20I negotiated two transactions and closed them the day before he left.
47:26And you're talking about a prayer.
47:29Jackie's commissions paid for only part of the first semester.
47:32And who they're with?
47:33What does it take you a year down there for him?
47:35It's $7,000 a year.
47:40Is he going to be able to make it this year?
47:41I just received a letter that I have to pay $1,300.
47:47Now, or Keith will have to be put out in $48.
47:51But again, God came through again.
47:54Keith had applied for a lot of charge cards before he left.
47:58Keith? Hi.
48:01How are you doing?
48:02All right, listen.
48:05We came up with something.
48:08Oh, that's so sweet. I can tell you've been down south a long time.
48:11You're saying, yes ma'am.
48:12You're Discover card came in and we were concerned about this letter that came from your school.
48:20So here's what we're going to do.
48:22I called the Discover card people and I told them we wanted a cash advance.
48:30Most people, when they pray, expect God to give them a miracle.
48:34What you got was a $1,000 credit with 18% interest rate.
48:38But it'll tie me over until I can get the miracle.
48:44So then this semester is taken care of.
48:48You hear me?
48:49All right, I love you.
48:51It's called Rob Peter to Pay Paul.
48:53And I'm robbing Peter so much that Peter is just standing there.
48:57But Bill, when you're going from trying to figure out what to eat today, should I fill my tank all the way up?
49:04It's just got to happen.
49:05I can't afford to worry about anything but what I'm taking care of.
49:10I have a sign as you come in.
49:13It's a little bitty, it looks like a biblical, a Bible.
49:15And it says, as for me and my house, that's all I'm worried about.
49:19And I know that's the 90s mood and I don't want to have that.
49:23But as for me and my house, I can't worry what the president's doing.
49:27I can't worry about what my neighbors are doing.
49:30Or the new global economy.
49:31Or the economy.
49:32It's only just us.
49:36As 1995 draws to a close, the Stanleys and Newmans continue to try and make ends meet.
49:45Terry has taken a full-time job as an armored car driver.
49:54Starting pay is $7.50 an hour.
49:57Plus the crucial medical benefits that Tony's job lacks.
50:02I get a lot of looks from a lot of truck drivers.
50:05A lot of double takes that, wow, look at that, yeah.
50:09I love it.
50:10I think it's great, you know.
50:12Working?
50:13Working, yeah.
50:16And having the power behind the big truck, you know.
50:18I like it.
50:19The power behind the big truck?
50:21Yeah, I get a lot more looks than sitting in the kitchen cooking muffins.
50:28Tony didn't get the job he retrained for.
50:32He's continuing at his old one.
50:37Together, Tony and Terry now earn more than Tony did before his layoff.
50:42But the Newman kids come home alone.
50:56The Stanley twins have taken fast food jobs.
50:58The money they earn goes to help Keith in college.
51:01But they have goals of their own.
51:03I plan to go to medical school and succeed in life.
51:07And I still haven't left that dream of making $300 million, something like that, what I used to say.
51:12I still haven't lost that.
51:14I plan to be an architectural engineer and be the next Frank Lloyd Wright.
51:25Grew up and have a nice family.
51:26You know, that's my long term, go retire, play a little golf.
51:33That's about it.
51:35Claude Sr. is still on the job waterproofing basements.
51:39Do you think you'll ever retire?
51:45The way it looked now, I don't think so.
51:48I'm about to keep on working.
51:56Meanwhile, Briggs and Stratton is in the process of eliminating 2,000 more jobs in Milwaukee.
52:02And for working people all over America, real wages continue to decline.
52:19And now for some of your comments about our program, Who's Afraid of Rupert Murdoch?
52:24Dear Frontline, I'm a 15-year-old kid who by chance was reading George Orwell's 1984
52:29when I flashed on his show about Rupert Murdoch.
52:32It seems to me that for a person who was supposed to be against the establishment,
52:36he sure does have a lot of control over what people hear and think.
52:40This is the kind of person Orwell feared.
52:42Scott Spradlin, Oklahoma.
52:43Dear Frontline, your tell-it-like-it-is of Murdoch failed, as it was way too deferential to Murdoch.
52:49Murdoch equals garbage TV and garbage newspapers.
52:53Yet you made him out to be this icon he has not.
52:55Lately, your programs are too middle of the road.
52:58Paul Cooney to Lowry, California.
53:00Dear Frontline, your recent documentary,
53:02on Rupert Murdoch is indicative of the media's continuing bias against successful business leaders.
53:08Rupert Murdoch should be commended for his achievements in spite of bureaucratic roadblocks,
53:13the anti-business regulatory environment, and media misinformation.
53:17Rick Griffin, Seattle, Washington.
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53:19There is nothing new about using undraped women to sell newspapers or anything else.
53:25What is a greater concern to me is the reliability of the media in reporting and following up on stories that embarrass their corporate patrons.
53:34entertainers like Rupert Murdoch are not the major problem.
53:39Alvin Hofer, Gainesville, Florida.
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