Have you ever driven your luxury car past a bunch of homeless folk and felt like a total prick … ?

To know when you have enough is to be rich beyond measure. — Lao Tzu

We all love a good story. We all love cool movies. Storytelling is very much a part of the world. Life is about stories and stories are about life. Stories bind us, and inspire us. Stories give us hope, and stories define us. Stories are what we pass down from generation to generation. Stories are who we are. Your legacy is a story. Hopefully it is a good story.

Many of my friends are storytellers. They write and make films and share stories on a screen. Sometimes on the big screen and sometimes on the home television (like with Netflix). And sometimes no one sees the films. Why? Well, because it turned out not-so-good, and no one wanted to see it. This happens. No one ever intends to make a crap film, but it happens. Also, getting distribution for an indie film, even if it turned out good, is never easy.

I have been working with my film friends for many many years. Each film project is like a start-up. It is always a struggle. But when you believe in what you are doing, you find the strength. When you believe in the people, you kill yourself to make it happen. When you believe in the story, you find a way. But it is always a difficult challenge.

At the moment we have some very good storytelling projects in different stages. Some are being developed. Some are in the middle of being edited. Some are being pitched. Not all of these stories will find their way to a finished film. And of the films that do get made, not all of them will find an audience.

What then does the title of this blog have to do with these opening paragraphs. That is the story for today. For people to embrace a film, we can’t live in a world filled with homeless people, who are suffering. And this applies to every industry. If the current economic trajectory continues then the number of unemployed people, and homeless people, is going to keep on increasing. And if all that is left one day are a small number of rich people, and a ton of poor people, then it is game over.

We make films for people — all people — without an audience then there would not be a film industry. It doesn’t work if there are only homeless people.

This is another story my film friends have been discussing. Where does the global inequality come from? America, for example, has always been proud of its middle class, but it appears more and more that it has become about rich and poor. The middle class are being squeezed and squeezed. There are now over 40 million Americans that are unemployed. And watching movies is not their priority at the moment.

We are not making films exclusively for rich people. If regular folk cannot afford to go to the cinema then what is the point. Who are going to see the movies when more and more regular folk are battling to survive?

If it is true, that the system is perverted so that the rich really are getting richer and richer, and the poor getting poorer and poorer, then one can deduce that at some point there will only be rich and poor, and no one in-between. The rich are clearly not leaving anything on the table. I personally have never understood the point of hoarding cash.

I have been to India a few times, and have seen incredible wealth right next door extreme poverty. Where I come from in South Africa, it is not too dissimilar. And the inequality is growing and growing. In fact, I have seen this all over the globe. In Brazil, in Ukraine, and just about everywhere I have spent time.

Yes, so when you drive your luxury car past a bunch of homeless people you do feel guilty. In my simple view, if people can’t afford to go to the movies, then why make the films. And so it goes for every endeavour.

How can rich people enjoy the wealth they have if everywhere they turn they just see people struggling and suffering. I really don’t get it.

Greed got us here. And the history of the world shows us what happens next.