Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story Will Find a Ready Audience
When I first met Michael Moore more than 20 years ago he was showing a half-finished documentary to a few dozen people in a classroom in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was funny and poignant and had a powerful message. He had taken a second mortgage on his house - equipment for filmmaking was a lot more expensive back then - and raised some money from like-minded locals for a long-shot venture. We all loved what he showed us but thought he would be lucky if a few thousand people got to see it.
But the film, Roger and Me - about the irrationality and human cost of the destruction of America's auto industry - was a smash hit and soon Moore was on his way to become America's most influential documentary film-maker. Twenty years later, he has produced his most radical work, which was greeted with rave enthusiasm here at the world's oldest film festival in Venice.
As the old saying goes, you either blame the victim or blame the system. And Moore is making an appeal to blame the system - big time. You know this film is going to be subversive when it opens with clips depicting actual bank robbers - caught on security cameras in the midst of their heists - grabbing their loot with Iggy Pop's cover of "Louie Louie" (a special version for the film) blasting away in the background. Moral equivalence for the titans of the financial industry - and their political protectors - is just around the corner.
Capitalism: A Love Story, doesn't just go after the seamy side of the American economy - although that is captured nicely in the scenes of "Condo Vultures" feeding on Florida's housing bust and corporations (including Wal-Mart and Amegy Bank) who take out insurance policies on their employees and cash in big when they die young. These ghoulish derivatives go by the charming name of "Dead Peasants" insurance - enough said.
But Moore has bigger targets in his sights: he is questioning whether the whole incentive structure, moral values, and political economy of American capitalism are fit for human beings. Although this will not seem so radical in Europe, where most countries have had governments in the post-WWII era that at least called themselves socialist, or in most of the developing world, where socialist ideas have plenty of popular appeal, it's pretty much unprecedented for anything that can reach a mass audience in the United States.
But you don't have to be a revolutionary to appreciate this film. Indeed it can be seen as a social democratic treatise, with Franklin Roosevelt's proposed "second bill of rights" - an "economic bill of rights" that included a job with a living wage, housing, medical care, and education - as its reform program. Roosevelt is shown proposing this now forgotten program in 1944.
As in his previous films, Moore combines the grief and tragedy of the victims - people losing their homes and jobs - with hilarious comedy, cartoonish film clips from the 1950s, and sober testimony as needed. And there are victories, too - as when workers occupy their factory in Chicago to win the pay that they are owed.
As an economist who operates in the think tank world, I have to appreciate this film. He gets the economic story right. How is it that Michael Moore's father could buy a house and raise a family on the income of one auto worker, and have a pension for his retirement? And yet this is not possible in the vastly more productive economy of today? The answer is not complicated: in the first half of the post-War era, employees shared in the gains from productivity growth; since 1973, most of them have hardly done so at all. (Productivity growth has also slowed.) Moore also explains the structural changes, such as President Ronald Reagan's roll back of labor relations to the 19th century, that helped bring about the most massive upward redistribution of income in U.S. history. He even includes a few graphs and charts to back up the main points with actual data.
From an economic point of view, the only thing missing was a look at the stock market and housing bubbles of the last decade. The current recession, like the last one, was primarily caused by the collapse of a huge asset bubble - an $8 trillion housing bubble in 2006, and a similar size stock market bubble in 2000-2002. This is something that most of the media has not really understood. Asset bubbles are as old as capitalism, and since this is a movie about capitalism and the current Great Recession, it would have been nice to see some of this in the movie. But I can't fault Moore too much for not taking on something that most economists and the business press missed completely and still don't talk about. It's a film, not a book.
Moore also wins my vote by getting his facts and numbers right. This is worth emphasizing because Moore's last documentary, Sicko - which was quite careful with the facts - drew attacks from CNN and a smear campaign from the insurance industry. Both attempted - unsuccessfully - to impugn its accuracy. Wendell Potter, former vice president of corporate communications for CIGNA and the author of several memos attempting to discredit Sicko, recently admitted to Bill Moyers on camera that Moore "hit the nail on the head with his movie."
The new love story also targets the big boys who made our current Great Recession possible: Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Larry Summers (the three smugly depicted in that ridiculous 1999 Time Magazine cover of the "Committee to Save the World"), and Tim Geithner. Rubin, who came from the "Government of Goldman Sachs," helped deregulate the financial industry and got rich at Citibank from the results. Larry Summers, who came from academia, also made millions from the de-regulated, government-guaranteed casino that he helped fashion when he (like Rubin) was President Clinton's Treasury Secretary. It's a bi-partisan Hall of Shame, tracking the havoc wreaked by a burgeoning, parasitic, and increasingly politically powerful financial industry, through the Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II presidencies.
In a heart-warming contrast to the Age of Greed, we see Jonas Salk, the man who discovered the vaccine for polio in 1955, saving millions from the crippling and often fatal disease and refusing to get rich off his work by claiming patent rights. He only wanted that it be as available as possible. "Could you patent the sun?" he asks. And the Catholic Bishop of Detroit, when asked what Jesus would think of capitalism, replies that Jesus would not want to participate in such a system. It's all part of Moore's plot to make democratic socialist values as American as apple pie.
Which is a tough sell, but if anyone can try it, it's a Midwestern boy from the heartland, the kind that Garrison Keillor writes about when he says that it's "the dummies who sit on the dais, and the smart people who sit in the dark near the exits," the son of a Flint autoworker who is true to his roots and doesn't forget which side he is on. Twenty years later, he doesn't seem to have been changed very much by fame and success.
Moore's last film was a devastating indictment of the U.S. health care system, an excellent intro to the current battle for health care reform. This one could very well be a prelude to the mass populist anger and disillusionment that is only beginning to swell in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the official unemployment rate will remain near ten percent through next year. If we add in the underemployed (involuntarily part-time), dropouts from the labor force and other uncounted unemployment we are looking at a number nearly twice as high. Even if the economy were to begin a recovery relatively soon, it won't feel like one for quite some time. This film will have an audience that is ready for it, in the United States and elsewhere.
This column was published by The Guardian Unlimited on September 10, 2009.
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We already have socialism in this country, as evidenced by medicare, social security. In addition, another form of socialism alive and well is "corporate socialism". Why do you think housing developments can get built and the roads stay the same, till govt realizes, "oh, we need to widen the road now." Look at all of the corporations who have just walked away from their old brick and mortar buildings after the sites were declared Superfund sites. Privatize the profit, and socialize the cost...its been going on for decades, and now centuries in this country. Do you all remember when the Republicans wanted to privatize social security under Bush Jr.?
For all those folks who say to government: "stay away from my health care!", let's take their medicare and social security away. The leader of Freedom Works, Dick Armey, former congressman from Texas, has had govt. jobs his entire life, and has a govt run healthcare program even though he's retired, and keeps till he is 65, then moves to Medicare. Yet, Freedom Works organizes the Tea Party demonstrations across the country, yelling "less govt, and stay out of health care." Do others see the irony and LIES?
Let's investigate the backgrounds of these leaders yelling govt stay out of healthcare, and find their real motives. You can't talk the talk without walking the talk, that's the standard you and I are held to, why not the same for congressmen and senators, and others?
The same with Sicko and this movie people will be rev up, but things will remain the same.
Good job Michae,l cannot wait to see it!
Michael Moore is the most intelligent American I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot in 63 years!
The media at all levels keep the American people ignorant of the truth that Michael speaks. Moreover, they spend millions to try to make him look like an overweight clown, this was particularly true before Sicko was released. Investigative reporting is dead except for Michael Moore. The internet is the last bastion of truth and even that needs intelligent navigation.
I can't wait to see his movie.
However, I do feel the issue we have in this country is mislabeling our problem. Capitalism works if properly regulated by the government. But capitalism died during the cold war and it was replaced by corporatism. Large Corporations bought our government, write our laws, and control our treasury.
Corporatism is fascism with a smile and without the physical intimidation. Corporatism bastardizes our legal and regulatory systems to achieve the same ends as fascism.
Michael Moore with have my street cred when he does, "The Nanny State, back to the Womb".
Michael Moore will deliver a dose of Noam Chomsky for those who don't read Chomsky.
Moore's role ( like Chomsky's ) in the propaganda paradigm is much like that of Karl Marx: to present a false liberation ideology which actually supports the desired solutions of the elite. Marx pointed out the inequalities and brutality of capitalism and then advocated a one world bank, army, and government with the abolition of private property and religion; in other words, the major goals of the New World Order.
( courtesy of Daniel L. Abrahamson )
There will be no new regulations.
There will be no reform.
Wall Street owns Congress.
And the next time the financial system is ready to collapse they will ask Congress for a bail out and they will get it.
You forgot, there will be no prosecutions. All of which explains why Obama lost me.
You forgot, there will be no prosecutions. All of which explains why Obama lost me.
Capitalism is on its deathbed, it has been since the late 1970's, Reagan made sure of it. Just like Communism imploded because it couldn't pay to play the arms race game, capitalism will implode because of the profits being made by the upper 1% of the population and the declining standard of living for the average person in this country. We won't be called to act together as a country, as one voice, till we see $5 or $7 a gallon gas, bread at $6, and other items that affect our wallets. Till it hits our wallets, it's just the 6:00 news, replaced tomorrow.
NEGATIVE. Capitalism can be strangled by Big Government; we're not there yet!
Capitalism's ECONOMIC system of free markets, individual choice and consumer power turned the US into the most prosperous nation in history. Capitalism allows EVERYBODY to thrive. Sure, you'll have wealthy people, and all the rest who try are still well off as they reap the rewards of their work.
BUT If the heavy hand of government regulation interrupts, then the market is restricted and you will end up with oligarchies, rationing, price increases, wealth concentrated in the hands of a few. In the US, that's happened in a few industries: auto, energy, airlines (until deregulation), banking (today, somewhat), insurance companies (restricted from operating nationally, each state picks and chooses just a few allowing mini-monopolies), shipping (maritime union has stranglehold on all the ports). I'm sure there are others.
Capitalism brought us to where we are. But Big Government is strangling it more and more. FDR and LBJ introduced Big Government programs (Social Security, Medicare, HUD, etc.) that have run up debt like crazy. More problematical are effects of exploding regulations and mandates from governmental agencies; Energy, Agriculture, Environment, Commerce, Education, HEW, Transportation, which if too heavy, result in corporate and government run oligarchies (Agriculture, Big Insurance and Big Government in Health Care, Big 3 in the Auto Industry, Shipping Lines, Big Oil, etc.).
Obama and the Democrats are expanding Big Government. Hopefully capitalism will survive, but not without our help.
I'm always baffled how his detractors paint Michael Moore as some sort of America-hating radical. One thing that's clear in his movies is his respect and admiration for, and desire to defend 'average Americans', the soccer moms and Joe six-packs. Greedy, manipulative liars and hypocrites? Not so much.
There are some people out there who just cannot handle the truth of what Mr Moore presents to them.
most americans are NOT ready yet, but
moore's movies have been eye-openers to the rest of the world
about what america and capitalism is all about.
my friends all around the world are speechless.
about the complicity and stoooopidity of 95% of the americans.
I can't take his movies seriously.
I watched Fahrenheith 9/11....an
If you are a Michael Moore fan, you MUST do what I did...it will show you how he creates his films...
some scared thief who pays for for your pathetic shilling attempt
is being ripped off.
I can't take Rachael Maddow's program seriously.
I watched her...and then I watched Glenn Beck...it was eyeopening
If you are a Rachael Maddow fan, you MUST do what I did...it will show you that
mimicry is the highest form of flattery. Got to go join my special 30% of the population.
"How is it that Michael Moore's father could buy a house and raise a family on the income of one auto worker, and have a pension for his retirement? And yet this is not possible in the vastly more productive economy of today?"
You can't be serious. What does the "productivity of the economy" have to do with whether a certain guys job pays well or not? His dad didn't work for "the economy". And how do you imagine the American economy gets it's strength. Certainly not from carrying the weight of overpaid bolt turners on payrolls. Your labor is worth what another man will pay you for it, period. One wonders why a janitor makes less than a brain surgeon. After all, if the janitor doesn't clean up, the surgeon can't do his work. Manual labor will soon be obsolete, and that has nothing to do with the "system".
Oh Right! And the CEO who makes 1,000 time the least paid employee really helps turning those bolts. Without the so-called bolt-turners as you put it, there would be no production at all. It was Henry Ford after all who had the radical notion that each of his worker should be able to buy one of the cars coming of the production line.
At the current CEO level a mans wage is not what another man will pay for it. It is what a compensation committee with built in bias towards inflated CEO salaries will vote for. No shareholder input allowed.
Perhaps you are correct that manual labor will soon be obsolete. However, the "system" is currently based on that paradigm and if your forecast is correct that paradigm must change. Maybe that is what Mr. Moore is talking about.
Sometimes I think the business right is more delusional than the social conservative right. America, according to them, can do just fine without a middle class and without actually producing anything. They display such contempt for 'mere citizens!. The rest of the world now builds all our TV and car and dishwashers. our unemployed
Wow. You can't be serious! Everyone who passes basic Econ understands that the ECONOMY'S GROWTH is essential for wages & individual compensation, along with things like the percentage of people EMPLOYED, and even interest rates. I mean, you do get an "A," for seeming to be so incredulous, but really- go back to class, THEN coma and post something here that at least makes sense...
Great post. Exactly correct. We are on the edge of destruction because of the insane greed of a relative few individuals. Capitalism? In name only. If you want to save it, and us, the greed must be eradicated.
Are you advocating communism?
"The working class and all who work for a living—the vast majority of the people—face a relentless, vicious, and amoral enemy: the capitalist class."
This is from the American Communist Party website: cpusa.org
OOOOO - that scary word Communism and it's evil sister Socialism. Help!
why, is it illegal in this country to THINK?
Capitalism for all would be OK. Recently, it's been only for the wealthy.
And are you advocating FASCISM, which is also known as NAZIISM--the merger of state and corporate power?
Before you give in to a knee-jerk reaction, consider logically ~ while you would not agree with the communist system as the answer, surely it's possible to read on that website some analysis of current problems with which you might agree.
We don't have true capitalism here, but larger and larger monopolies.
No. 1 fan of Michael Moore!!! Can't wait to see it!
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