Man Alive

Paid Off: The Struggle Back (1975x6)

Air date: Feb 13, 1975

' I think for the man in his 40s to become unemployed is the ultimate in personal tragedy,' says a man who used to earn 15,000 a year as the managing director of an oil subsidiary. He spent six months on E15 a week social security money, wrestling with debt and humiliation. That was in 1971. The experience changed his life completely. 1971 was a year of high unemployment. At that time James Burke met redundant top executives to find out what it is like to be a boss with no prospect of a job. Now, as the unemployment figures soar again, there are more unemployed executives than ever. JAMES BURKE returns, with a Man Alive team, to look at the long-term consequences of executive unemployment. How did the people he met in 1971 oope after they had reached rock-bottom? How drastically have their experiences affected their lives?