Capitalism: A Love Affair by Michael Moore

[Guest mormonmusic]

My wife showed me this movie recently, by Michael Moore who did movies like SuperSize Me (a movie highlighting the negative health effects of McDonalds), and others. I searched this forum for Michael Moore and also Capitalism in thread titles, and saw nothing, so , here goes....

This one, Capitalism: A Love Affair highlights the suffering of ordinary Americans at the hands of a government that is beholden to Wall Street.

Although I tend to hold conservative values, some of the facts in the movie suggested that our capitalistic society has been hijacked by Wall Street tycoons who made their way into advisory positions to the government, influencing and sometimes railroading presidents and policy-makers into making decisions which help Wall street and the rich, at the expense of the poor.

Spoiler Alert: I share some highlights here so if you intend to watch it, don't go any further in your reading of this post....He highlights some highly questionable practices, such as companies taking out policies on rank and file employees in the event of what is called a "Peasant Death", in which a major company gets upwards to 1.5 million dollars for the death of certain employees, particularly young females. The family of the deceased employee gets nothing.

Parts of it were humourous, where Michael Moore shows up at a Wall Street Bank with a Brink's truck and demands the Bailout money to the banks be returned immediately so he can take it back to the government treasury. The conversation he has with the security people and the exec that comes down to address his concern is entertaining.

He also takes yellow crime scene tape and puts it around the perimeter of one of the big investment banks, and on a megaphone, asks all the execs to come out with their hands up, as he's making a citizens arrest for their crimes.

Disturbing was a letter from CitiBank top executives describing how the concentration of wealth in 1% of the population is becoming a reality, and the only thing threatening their ability to dictate all aspects of American life is the democratic vote, which they see as a threat! If these attitudes prevail among the rich and powerful, then he definitely need strong checks against that community.

Did anyone see this, and what did you think of the movie?

Edited May 26, 2010 by mormonmusic

[NeuroTypical]

Please don't hold this against me, but I think I could have a very pleasant and enjoyable conversation with Michael Moore if I ever end up sitting next to him on an airplane or something.

I'm sure we could both agree that more good things and less bad things are desirable, but we'd probably never see eye to eye on how to bring that about, or even agree on what constitutes a good or a bad thing.

Anyone who loads up a pink 'sodomobile' with a bunch of alternative-lifestyle enthusaists, and travels the country counter-protesting Fred Phelps, is ok in my book. Even if he is dead wrong about everything else, to the point of being dangerous.

LM

[hordak]

My wife showed me this movie recently, by Michael Moore who did movies like SuperSize Me (a movie highlighting the negative health effects of McDonalds), and others. I searched this forum for Michael Moore and also Capitalism in thread titles, and saw nothing, so , here goes....

Do you mean "like" as in similar.

E.G. I cut my hair like Johnny Depp

Or "like" as is "such as"

E.G. George Lucas created films like Star wars and Indiana Jones.

If it is the second...

FYI

Morgan Valentine Spurlock

Supersize me.

Michael Moore

Capitalism

[marshac]

One thing I haven't enjoyed hearing this past year is that we have had a 'failure of the free market' when quite frankly, we havn't had a free market in some time. When the government creates incentives/disincentives to specific actions, it creates market distortions- in many ways, we're paying for those distortions now. In many ways, the most visible distortion is in the mortgage market- the government buys mortgages which offloads the risk of default from the lending institution to the government, so it's no surprise standards became so lax. There are many many other examples (such as the federal reserve setting the short term rates rather than the market) of how the markets have been distorted... so yes, bad stuff is going on, but I think it would be foolish to 'abandon' the free market principles the US was founded on simply because everyone is looking for a scape goat.

[rameumptom]

I think Cleon Skousen's Naked Capitalist may be making more sense today than when he wrote it 50 years ago.

Many of the wealthy, such as George Soros, want to control things, so they can manipulate the entire world the way they wish it to go. Freedom plays against this, at least freedom on the scale that Americans are used to. It requires limiting free speech and assembly, and giving people only enough economic freedom to buy a few nifty things to keep them appeased. This is what China is doing to its people right now, enough economic opportunities that they do not care about real freedom. Not many Chinese think about Tienanmen Square anymore.

Many Americans are happy as long as they can have their Facebook and video games. Don't bother them with the details of governing. This is also what we now see in Greece, where people are rioting because they sense their economic rights are threatened by economic collapse. Instead of accepting freedom and responsibility, they are grasping for a bailout. They want Germans to work until they are 70, so they can retire at 55 with more money than they made while working!

We need to get beyond a focus on economy and begin focusing on true principles of freedom in order to keep this nation free. While I'm not a big fan of Michael Moore, I think he's right on how Congress and the Wall Street financiers are taking us for a ride. However it ends where he thinks we should be more socialistic, as that falls into the hands of the big bankers, also.

[marshac]

...

Spot on. Unfortunately Americans have become so ignorant of how government works, the role of the States as envisioned by the founding fathers, the limit of federal power, etc that I'm not sure we can return to those true principles. I have this sad suspicion that if you asked a random person on the street what the three branches of government were, they would say something like "federal, state, and local"...

Seriously... are there no limits to the commerce clause?

[pam]

My wife showed me this movie recently, by Michael Moore who did movies like SuperSize Me (a movie highlighting the negative health effects of McDonalds),

I don't believe Michael Moore had anything to do with SuperSize Me. It was a documentary directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock.

[Moksha]

.

Many of the wealthy, such as George Soros, want to control things, so they can manipulate the entire world the way they wish it to go.

Michael Moore is sort of like the Ida Tarbell of our time (she took on the big trusts and together with the help of Teddy Roosevelt was able to break them up). John D. Rockefellar was a George Soros type of character of his day and his company Standard Oil had a strangle hold on all who needed oil and gas. However, now we also have huge companies like Haliburton, Bechtel and Exxon being able to exert even more undue power - even though Exxon is but one of the fragments of the Standard Oil monopoly. Michael Moore needs his Teddy Roosevelt.

[ttribe]

The day I look to Michael Moore for guidance and direction on economics is the day I hand in my CPA license.

[Guest mormonmusic]

I don't believe Michael Moore had anything to do with SuperSize Me. It was a documentary directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock.

My comment was that the SuperSizeMe flick had a similar flavor as the Capitalism: A Love Story movie by Moore.

[pam]

My comment was that the SuperSizeMe flick had a similar flavor as the Capitalism: A Love Story movie by Moore.

Ahhh but that's not what you said:

My wife showed me this movie recently, by Michael Moore who did movies like SuperSize Me (a movie highlighting the negative health effects of McDonalds

The way this was written totally implied that Michael Moore did SuperSizeMe.

[Guest mormonmusic]

One thing that Moore postulates is that the higher-ups at the banks desire to establish a plutonomy where the economy is controlled by an ever-shrinking minority, with wealth concentrating in the hands of as little as 1% of the population.

This buzz word was initially coined by analysts at Citigroup in 2005 to describe the incredible growth of the U.S. economy during that period despite increasing interest rates, commodity prices and an inflated national debt. Citigroup analysts argued that as such an economy continues to grow in the face of contradictory elements, the more important the society's ultra rich become to maintaining such growth. The analysts also believed that in addition to the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and China are also becoming plutonomies.

Source: Plutonomy

According to Moore, there was a memo distributed to that effect at CitiBank -- with the statement that the only thing holding back the plutonomy was the democratic vote.

I believe there are factions in society who believe this and would love to see it come to pass. Thank goodness for the wisdom of our founding fathers who put in a democratic system that prevents these elements from getting their way.

[Just_A_Guy]

The memo is online here.

The "threats" of a social backlash are outlined at page 10, halfway down, under the subheading "Risks - What Could Go Wrong". Taken in context, though--Citi doesn't seem to be taking part in a devious plot to subjugate the masses; it's just trying to gauge fiscal trends and develop an investment strategy that capitalizes on those trends. The major conclusion of the memo appears to be that Citi should invest more in firms that cater to the rich. If you sink a few million into Tiffany's, and suddenly no one's able to afford Tiffany's goods anymore--it isn't only the rich who suffer; it's the middle-class schmucks who trusted you to manage their retirement accounts.

But then, such a crash of middle-class retirement accounts will work to the advantage of those who want to eliminate individual 401(k)s and replace them with a federal pension.

Edited May 31, 2010 by Just_A_Guy