David Sanchez Burr Problemlessness Single Channel Video NTSC 2007 22min 30sec

Barbara Ehrenreich coined the term that inspired this work.

(4 minute excerpt shown here)

Problemlessenss

For many the movements of an economic pendulum are not absorbable phases. During the foreclosure crisis one could see systems of maintenance fall apart; just how volatile these systems can be, and what a profound effect they have on peoples lives. These economical shifts and system failures are accepted as an embedded trait of a global economy.

The term Problemlessness was first coined by Barbara Ehrenreich in her book Fear of Falling, she created the term to describe the social situation for the affluent middle class of the late fifties and early sixties. The short chapter describes an era where blue collar workers and the new white collar class joining in a supposed new universal class, the post world war II era had seemingly generated so much wealth that the social issues of the time were described as ‘less than a handful of problems’. Political leaders went so far as to think that the major social issues of the times were indeed resolved. This was proven to be distant from reality and it was far from reality when I moved to Nevada in the summer of 2006.  The two time periods had one thing in common, a prevailing state of problemlessness.