Free Lunch Society
May 05, 2017 | IMDB 7.8
94 min Watch NowDocumentary
What would you do if your basic income was taken care of month after month? Would you stop working? Follow your passions? Take more risks? The four-figure sum that all four members of the Wardwell family receive each year from the Alaskan government’s crude oil profits goes towards a college fund for their children, something they would otherwise be unable to afford. Filmmaker Christian Tod, himself a fervent supporter of the idea, explores the model of an unconditional basic income and takes a look at trial systems already underway in the US, Canada and Namibia. Wandering the history of this utopia reminiscent of science fiction he eventually ends up in Switzerland, where the new system was voted on in 2016. In this multifaceted and highly entertaining documentary, Tod broaches life’s existential questions and fuels the debate on one of the most prevalent economic topics of our generation.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Food for Profit
The China Hustle
Herrings
Zeitgeist
The Bubble
Un jour en Italie
Zeitgeist: Addendum
Who’s Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics
Laissez-faire
Overdraft
The Real Adam Smith: Ideas That Changed The World
Surviving Progress
System Error
This Is China
Le business du commerce équitable
The Power of Zero
Paname: The Ghost of the Great Frenchman
A Decent Home
Davos
Princes of the Yen
SIMILAR MOVIES
Food for Profit
IMDB 8 | Feb , 2024
The film exposes the links between Agrifood and politics. With a pool of international experts it analyses the many problems related to factory farming: water pollution, migrants exploitation, biodiversity loss and antibiotic resistance.The China Hustle
IMDB 7.2 | Mar , 2018
An unsettling and eye-opening Wall Street horror story about Chinese companies, the American stock market, and the opportunistic greed behind the biggest heist you've never heard of.Herrings
IMDB 0 | Sep , 1940
This informative herring aid from WWII makes no bones about the need to make the most of every fish.Zeitgeist
IMDB 6.9 | Jun , 2007
A documentary examining possible historical and modern conspiracies surrounding Christianity, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Federal Reserve bank.The Bubble
IMDB 5.5 | Jul , 2018
Diving deep into the true causes of the Great Recession, the financial crisis of the 2010s, renowned economists, investors and business leaders explain what America is facing if we don't learn from our past mistakes. Is the economy really improving or are we just blowing up another Bubble?Un jour en Italie
IMDB 8.5 | Aug , 2017
Zeitgeist: Addendum
IMDB 7.2 | Oct , 2008
Zeitgeist: Addendum premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival. Director Peter Joseph stated: "The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It address the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution."Who’s Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics
IMDB 0 | Oct , 1995
This documentary profiles economist and writer Marilyn Waring. In extensive interviews, Waring details her feminist approach to finances and challenges commonly accepted truths about the global economy. The filmmakers detail Waring's early rise to political prominence and her successful protests against nuclear arms. Waring also speaks candidly about wartime economies, suggesting that government policies tend to marginalize the fiscal contributions of women.Laissez-faire
IMDB 10 | Jan , 2015
A historical perspective to understand Neoliberalism and to understand why this ideology today so profoundly influences the choices of our governments and our lives.Overdraft
IMDB 7 | Jan , 2012
Overdraft is an award-winning film featuring leading thinkers and policymakers from across the aisle exploring major topics such as entitlement programs, defense spending, tax reform and the choices that America’s debt forces on individuals and businesses. Independently produced, Overdraft was launched in August 2012, and made available for broadcast on public television for two years through the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).The Real Adam Smith: Ideas That Changed The World
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2025
The Real Adam Smith: A Personal Exploration by Johan Norberg, takes an intriguing, two-part look at Smith and the evolution and relevance of his ideas today, both economic and ethical. It’s difficult to imagine that a man who lived with horse drawn carriages and sailing ships would foresee our massive 21st century global market exchange, much less the relationship between markets and morality. But Adam Smith was no ordinary 18th century figure. Considered the “father of modern economics,” Smith was first and foremost a moral philosopher. The revolutionary ideas he penned in The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, changed the world. Norberg explores Smith’s insights regarding free trade and the nature of wealth to the present, where they are thriving and driving the world’s economy.Surviving Progress
IMDB 7.3 | Nov , 2011
Humanity’s ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, “A Short History Of Progress” inspired “Surviving Progress”, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by “progress traps”—alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the world’s resources accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined civilization escape a final, catastrophic progress trap? With potent images and illuminating insights from thinkers who have probed our genes, our brains, and our social behaviour, this requiem to progress-as-usual also poses a challenge: to prove that making apes smarter isn’t an evolutionary dead-end.System Error
IMDB 7.2 | May , 2018
Melting glaciers, gullied seas, the financial markets are about to collapse. Spectacular images of how growth continues to be blinding. Outside you can hardly see anything because of the smog and the smoke screen.This Is China
IMDB 6.5 | Jan , 1946
A fascinating compilation of scenes showing diversity and disparity in 1940s China. The ancient Forbidden City and Great Wall are followed by Shanghai’s metropolitan skyline; primitive farming methods are juxtaposed with mechanised factories; children in rags are contrasted with models wearing the latest fashions; Nationalist commanders and Communist leaders vie for support.Le business du commerce équitable
IMDB 8.5 | Aug , 2013
More and more fair trade labels are entering the market and are being positively received by consumers. In 2012, around five billion euros were spent on fair trade products. But is it really always fair where it says fair? Filmmaker Donatien Lemaître visited plantations in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Kenya. The investigative documentary reveals how international corporations try to improve their image with the help of the fair trade concept - at the expense of small producers and their employees.The Power of Zero
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2018
As the US debt spirals out of control, it polarizes society and threatens to disrupt traditional retirement with an impending freight train of onerous taxes and draconian austerity measures.Paname: The Ghost of the Great Frenchman
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2018
Ferdinand de Lesseps, known as “The Great Frenchman”, will embark in the greatest adventure of his life: To unite the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through a Canal in the Isthmus of Panama – without knowing that this will cost him his reputation, thousands of innocent lives and the biggest financial scandal of all time, up to that point: the famous “Scandal of Panama”. Today, the French capital is known as “Paname”.A Decent Home
IMDB 6 | May , 2022
Mobile homes have long been an affordable option for people who struggle with the cost of other housing in the United States. But now the economy of mobile home parks is under threat as private equity firms are buying up properties and looking to squeeze more money out of mobile home owners. Filmmaker Sara Terry uses this backdrop to explore urgent class issues that resonate across America, and especially in the high-priced rental market of New York City.Davos
IMDB 6 | Jun , 2021
Beneath its reassuring façade, Davos is each year at the heart of the Western and capitalistic world. Every chief of State and everyone who is someone in the money world meets with their peers in the Swiss village. What is really at stake in Davos ? Julia Niemann and Daniel Hoesl create a fascinating observational documentary in which judgement is never handed out and where the dialectics of conflicts matter more than easy and reassuring answers. The film asks the viewer some uncomfortable questions by focusing on challenges that the new global economy poses to the world.Princes of the Yen
IMDB 7.3 | Nov , 2014
Set in 20th Century Japan the documentary explores the role and power of Central Banks and how they can be used to change a country's economic political and social structures A documentary adaption off the book by Professor Richard Werner.