After the party that Reagan threw for the rich in the 1980s, the bill was going to come due. A place like Flint was paying its bill early, but it would come everywhere. But I didn’t set out to be a prophet. I wanted change.

Well, I get a lot of mail and calls from teachers-junior high, high school, college. It’s used [to discuss] class distinctions in our society that we don’t normally talk about. The Norwegian school system even issued a study guide for teachers on how to use “Roger & Me”…The working person gets to give a Bronx cheer to management. I think people left “Roger & Me” with that sense of “Yeah! Finally, one for our side.”

I have received calls and letters from CEOs, and the reaction goes one of two ways. One, they’re aware of what I’m really saying-that I am opposed to our economic system-and they’re angry. The other group says the film was great because it was about GM, which they believe is just a terribly run corporation. They say, “Yeah, that’s GM. Not me. You never could have made that film about my company.”

The only reason this film is about GM is accident of birth. I happened to be born in Flint and my dad worked [at GM] for 33 years. [Focusing] on a single corporation or a single individual was a device, to speak to a much larger issue-about the system we live under. We’ve got to find ways where the people who are affected by the economy have a say in how that economy functions. Employees are going to have to take more control, in terms of ownership, sitting on boards of directors.

It can’t just be strikes. They have to work on many fronts-political action, legislation. There should be laws [against replacement workers] and companies shouldn’t be allowed to remove their assets from this country if it means the loss of jobs.

There aren’t many right now … But we have to create those avenues. The challenge is … how do we develop a democratic economic system? It’s not called capitalism and it’s not called socialism. A system that on one hand is fair to everyone-everyone gets a decent slice of the pie-but on the other hand doesn’t stifle creativity, that encourages an individual to excel and to help us all progress as a society. That’s the kick, right there.