Daily Loaf

No one can explain capitalism in a simple manner, and Michael Moore is no exception. Yet Capitalism: A Love Story does a fine job tackling the different sides of a complicated issue and sets forth the premise that the struggle we now face, no matter what the pundits tell you, isn’t between capitalism and socialism.
It’s between capitalism and democracy.
Do we want a society based on profit for some, or freedom for all? That’s the choice and question at the heart of this important documentary.

I confess: I’m a Michael Moore fan. I’m also a former history major and high school social studies teacher. For me, a movie that takes historical events, uses them in context to talk about our current predicament and accents the information with humor and heart — well, that’s a home run.
Moore begins by comparing the United States to Rome. Before you roll your eyes, consider the similarities: goods made by low-wage and sometimes slave labor, citizens ruled by decree, an empire led by men whose irresponsible behavior is above the law.
You might argue that at least we don’t have gladiators, but what would you call the UFC?
I found myself wondering, along with the film’s writer, director and producer: How will future generations judge us? The gap between those who have nothing and those who have it all gets bigger every year.
A modern-day Grapes of Wrath, Moore’s film shows us hard-working people struggling to keep their homes and maintain their dignity. It isn’t easy for them, and it’s not easy for us to watch.
For several decades, taxing the rich helped everyone. The rich remained wealthy and privileged, and the rest of us used their money to build roads, hospitals and schools. A thriving middle class grew out of this investment; families lived in comfortable communities, houses were affordable, and college could be paid for without student loans.
It was a good life.
But it wasn’t enough. We bought and consumed and bought some more. We waged war. We lost our minds. President Jimmy Carter tried to warn us, but instead of listening, we fired him and brought in the most successful corporate spokesman-turned-politician of his day.
Ronald Reagan.
He remade America to better suit business. Corporations and Wall Street had a friend in Reagan, who appointed Don Regan, former chairman of Merrill Lynch, to run the Treasury Department before becoming Reagan’s chief of staff. Together, Reagan and Regan cut millions of dollars in taxes for businesses. This led to the wholesale dismantling of the industrial infrastructure in this country.
When the income tax rate for the richest Americans got cut in half, towns died, businesses closed, workers lost their jobs and a series of events finally led to the economic meltdown we are still experiencing.
Moore explores the now-familiar juvenile justice scandal in Pennsylvania in which PA Child Care paid two judges to close down the public juvenile facility and sentence children to its private prison instead. Kids brought in for minor infractions like talking back to their parents got locked up for 13 months and, in return, PA Child Care took millions in taxpayer dollars.
Many people shrug and say, “That’s free enterprise. Take away the motivation to get rich and people won’t want to work.”
Moore says nonsense. He shows many examples where people find great satisfaction in doing well for themselves and their community at the same time.
This is a powerful documentary with a broad focus, a film Moore says he’s been making “for the last 20 years.” The evidence is poignant:
• Captain Sullenberger, the national hero who safely landed his plane in the Hudson River, stepped from the headlines to appear before Congress and discuss low pay and lost pensions for pilots.
• Many corporations take out insurance policies on their workers, making millions when employees die. They call this Dead Peasants Insurance.
• Priests join Moore in calling capitalism a sin, contrary to compassion, and not appropriate for a moral people.
• Wall Street executives try to explain derivatives, which are complicated betting schemes, and admit such tactics are purposely confusing to regulators.
• In the past 20 years, we’ve had more white-collar crime than at any other time in our nation’s history. Frauds led by CEOs have been allowed to occur under both Republican and Democratic leadership.
But it wouldn’t be a Michael Moore film if there weren’t cause for hope and, in some cases, celebration.
Moore’s solution?
“The friggin’ people.”
When the champions of a free market system turned to the government, to us, for a bailout, it made many Americans angry enough to get off their couches and do something. Moore talks to a family in Miami who refused to leave their foreclosed home, workers in Chicago who staged a sit-down strike until they were paid, and fed-up Americans who elected Barack Obama.
Democracy vs. Capitalism. That’s the struggle and the choice before us. Michael Moore makes the case for freedom, but he can’t fight these powerful interests alone. He’s hoping we’ll all join in and help.
So am I.

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