Capitalism by Michael Moore

[Cordoba]

I was watching an interview with Michael Moore on his film on Fora TV, and it's clear that this new film, out yesterday in the States, will help many of us understand Wall Street's real impact on the economy, as 1% of the population now control 95% of the wealth:

Capitalism: A Love Story

http://fora.tv/2009/09/17/Filmmaker_Michael_Moore_on_Capitalism_A_Love_Story

The Guardian Film Review:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/06/capitalism-love-story-review

America, enthuses a leaked Citibank report, is now a modern-day "plutonomy" where the top 1% of the population control 95% of the wealth. ......

Sounds like a good film

This is the official trailer:

YouTube - CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY - TRAILER

What do you think?

 

[YmirGF]

It is a film made by Michel Moore. What else does one need to know, Cordoba? He is certainly a master of the "shlockumentary".

 

[Oberon]

I was watching an interview with Michael Moore on his film on Fora TV, and it's clear that this new film, out yesterday in the States, will help many of us understand Wall Street's real impact on the economy,

His films don't help anyone understand anything. They are filled with half-truths and blatant manipulations. And I find it incredibly ironic that a guy who got his start by winning a settlement, then made the rest of his money by making independent films, is making another film on capitalism. You can't get much more capitalist than his life story.

 

[Cordoba]

Swimming against the current can be a lonely experience, but he has the courage to stand up and speak out while millions of other people like him are too afraid

From the current financial mess which was mainly created by Wall Street, Michael Moore may have a valid point

This is one of the film reviews posted on his web site:

October 3rd, 2009 3:20 AM

Rich get richer; Moore gets madder

The Inspector Columbo of film polemics gives us his most radical take yet in "Capitalism: A Love Story."


By Colin Colvert / Star Tribune

With "Capitalism: A Love Story," Michael Moore delivers his liveliest, most radical film to date. Forget the weary debate over the lack of dissenting voices and balance in his work. Moore is a provocateur, and "Capitalism" is a Molotov cocktail thrown straight at the heart of the New York Stock Exchange. The impact is spectacular.

This is no eye-glazing tutorial on debt swaps (Moore shows us a tongue-tied Harvard economist unable to explain a derivative). Instead, the film gives us a rollicking review of economic outrages and a scalding critique of insatiable greed. Capitalism isn't just a flawed theory, Moore argues, it's evil, a multiplier of all that is selfish and wrong in human nature. Fingers are pointed, names are named. Democrats take almost as many lumps as Republicans.

We meet families evicted from homes where they have lived for decades, airline pilots paid so little they qualify for food stamps, spouses stunned to learn that ghoulish employers took out secret insurance policies on their loved ones and made millions when they died.


Rich get richer; Moore gets madder | MichaelMoore.com

Is today's practice of Capitalism really fair and sustainable?

That is the core question of the film, which (imo) is a very valid question which deserves a good debate, one which this film can help investigate

Has any one actually seen the movie yet?

 

[Oberon]

Swimming against the current can be a lonely experience,

Right. Moore is a lonely, abused man, what with all his money from a capitolist system.

but he has the courage to stand up and speak out

and make money doing it in the precise system he is criticizing.

while millions of other people like him are too afraid

Or know how full of it he is, and that capitolism is the worst system there is, except for all the others.

From the current financial mess which was mainly created by Wall Street, Michael Moore may have a valid point

Only the current financial mess is also shared in socialist countries.



http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/rich-get-richer-moore-gets-madder

Rich get richer; Moore gets madderhttp://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/rich-get-richer-moore-gets-madderhttp://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/rich-get-richer-moore-gets-madder

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/rich-get-richer-moore-gets-madderhttp://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-in-the-news/rich-get-richer-moore-gets-madder

More accurately: Rich get Richer: among them moore, who makes his money via the capitolist system he decries.

 

[Bloomdido]

None of these rich people can be christians (Luke 12 22:34) and they ain't going to heaven. I saw the film he did on Columbine. Seemed pretty factual to me. Americans seem to love guns more than they love god.

 

[Oberon]

Seemed pretty factual to me. Americans seem to love guns more than they love god.

There were MANY inaccuracies in Bowling for Columbine, and many blatant distortions.

 

[Makaveli]

I think he has a valid point with his indictment of the current system and how it defrauds people, but he also is making money every time someone buys a ticket to this movie so it is hypocritical to be attacking the system he is profiting on.

However, he does have a point. Deregulating the economy and allowing banks to become even bigger and expand into new and dangerous markets was one of the reasons for the recession (in a nutshell), and then those banks took $700 billion of citizens' money without any oversight and are now reaping the rewards of government subsidization, while common citizens are having their homes foreclosed by these usurous banks. It's a terrible situation.

Moore is right to attack it, but he does do so hypocritically.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

More accurately: Rich get Richer: among them moore, who makes his money via the capitolist system he decries.

Which would be an ad hominem.

A man does, of course, have to eat.

 

[Bloomdido]

There were MANY inaccuracies in Bowling for Columbine, and many blatant distortions.

Lets have one then. Or a reference ....

 

[Sunstone]

Moore gets a lot of criticism, and I for one am not sure how accurate his documentaries are. The Right thinks they are very inaccurate, but who can trust the Right these days? It would be terribly naive to believe anything said by the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, etc, etc, etc. So, who knows how accurate Moore's documentaries are? I have yet to see any legitimate criticisms of them.

There's one thing Moore might be right about -- capitalism has some serious flaws. For instance, worker productivity has steadily risen for the past 30 or 40 years, but real worker wages have decreased. Instead of the gains from productivity going to everyone, they have been going to the rich alone. In other words, the rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I hope he discusses the dangerous and subversive ideals of customer service.

 

[YmirGF]

I hope he discusses the dangerous and subversive ideals of customer service.

Given that his shlockumentaries do a disservice to the viewer by distorting facts it is unlikely he is aware of the concept of "customer service".

 

[Troublemane]

Moore's movies are more propagandist films than anything else, and althought theres some small amount of fact mixed in there, i think he's probably acting from a position he actually believes in. Which is why he holds the paradoxical view that the US government-run VA health system is a total travesty, and that the same government should run the health care system of the entire country. He couldnt hold such obvious contradicitions if he wasnt a zealot!

But this time, i am somewhat on his side. He is at least taking on a subject nobody in washington is cheering him on about. And who knows, maybe if he ticks enough people off we will start to get at the truth of who screwed up the economy?..I know our so-called media isnt interested in telling us anything useful, besides "hey, its gonna get better, we just have to spend more, and be positive!" yeah, right! :trampo:

 

[Cordoba]

E-Mail from Michael Moore:
[FONT=Arial,Geneva,Verdana,Sans-Serif]For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning ...a note from Michael Moore[/FONT]

Sunday, 4 October, 2009

Amidst all the Wall Street bad guys and corrupt members of Congress exposed in "Capitalism: A Love Story," I pose a simple question in the movie:

"Is capitalism a sin?"

I go on to ask, "Would Jesus be a capitalist?" Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1% to have more financial wealth than the 95% under them combined?

I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what's left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. .....

MichaelMoore.com

Good topic for a new thread ....

 

[Alceste]

I'm still waiting for someone to point out a specific factual inaccuracy in any one of Moore's films. Oberon? YmirGF? Anyone?

 

[YmirGF]

I'm still waiting for someone to point out a specific factual inaccuracy in any one of Moore's films. Oberon? YmirGF? Anyone?

I'm more curious about someone pointing out the unvarnished accuracy of what Moore touts as fact.

 

[Mr Cheese]

If you actually watch Moore's interviews, he is discussing what capitalism has BECOME, not what it is....

there is a SUBTLE difference.

Moore as an american, actually LIKES capitalism
He dislikes what it has BECOME and argues that what is labelled as capitalism in modern times
is NOT capitalism at all...........

The detractors should at least get their ideas correct....

I do find it interestign that no facts about Moore's works are ever shown to be wrong, people just say they are.......

In the end, Moore may not be all that great, but as has been pointed out, compared to the "opposition" , he is a fountain of sanity, clarity and truth!

...............

 

[Alceste]

I'm more curious about someone pointing out the unvarnished accuracy of what Moore touts as fact.

Nice try. I made no claim of accuracy. I'm asking for a specific example of inaccuracy, and I suspect you are not going to be able to provide one. I could, but I'll bet you can't.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

I'm still waiting for someone to point out a specific factual inaccuracy in any one of Moore's films. Oberon? YmirGF? Anyone?

Have you actually tried to look any up?