Excuse me, but that's a subplot. It's a Wonderful life is about how important it is to do the right things in life, although at times that's the last thing you want to do. It's about loyalty and it's about friendship. It has very, very little to do with BIG BUSINESS. That's just a device. Sorry that's how you see it. IAWL is my favorite movie of all time. It's a very spiritual movie.
My point was that nearly all Capra’s movies have a bias in favor of socialism. Lionel Barrymore is the evil big businessman banker (private enterprise), while Jimmy Stewart heads the socialistic cooperative savings and loan.
The story revolves around Barrymore’s evil deed in stealing the deposit. That is what precipitates Stewart’s suicide attempt. When he sees what the town would be like without him, the town is named Potterville (after Barrymore’s character) and full of sleaze, prostitution, etc.
I am not saying it’s not a good movie or that it is wrong to enjoy it. What I am saying is that you should not miss the socialistic propaganda contained in the film, as it is in most of Frank Capra’s films.
It is true that the main theme is a positive and poignant one — that our lives have transcendent meaning.
But, the message of the subplot that the little guy must battle against evil big business which is trying to wreck out lives is the one that slips into the subconscious of the audience unexamined.
I think that unstated messages that are not obvious but highly emotive often have the most persuasive power. The communist did this in their propaganda films all of the time.
So, it was a great movie, but we have to over look the Marxist subliminal-isms.