"Capitalism is evil," says new Michael Moore filmSun Sep 6, 2009 11:59am EDT
By Mike Collett-White
VENICE (Reuters) - Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore comes to in his latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," which premieres at the Venice film festival Sunday.
Blending his trademark humor with tragic individual stories, archive footage and publicity stunts, the 55-year-old launches an all out attack on the capitalist system, arguing that it benefits the rich and condemns millions to poverty.
"Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil," the two-hour movie concludes.
"You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy."
The bad guys in Moore's mind are big banks and hedge funds which "gambled" investors' money in complex derivatives that few, if any, really understood and which belonged in the casino.
Meanwhile, large companies have been prepared to lay off thousands of staff despite boasting record profits.
The filmmaker also sees an uncomfortably close relationship between banks, politicians and U.S. Treasury officials, meaning that regulation has been changed to favor the few on Wall Street rather than the many on Main Street.
He says that by encouraging Americans to borrow against the value of their homes, businesses created the conditions that led to the crisis, and with it homelessness and unemployment.
Moore even features priests who say capitalism is anti-Christian by failing to protect the poor.
"Essentially we have a law which says gambling is illegal but we've allowed Wall Street to do this and they've played with people's money and taken it into these crazy areas of derivatives," Moore told an audience in Venice.
"They need more than just regulation. We need to structure ourselves differently in order to create finance and money, support for jobs, businesses, etc."
GREEN SHOOTS?
Amid the gloom, Moore detects the beginnings of a popular movement against unbridled capitalism, and believes President Barack Obama's rise to power may bolster it.
"Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event," he told a news conference. "If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him."
Moore also warned other countries around the world against following the recent U.S. economic and political model.
The film follows factory workers who stage a sit-in at a Chicago glass factory when they are sacked with little warning and no pay and who eventually prevail over the bank.
And a group of citizens occupies a home that has been repossessed and boarded up by the lending company, forcing the police who come to evict them to back down.
The film re-visits some of Moore's earlier movies, including a trip to his native Flint where his father was a car assembly line worker and was able to buy a home, a car, educate his children and look forward to a decent pension.
But he brings it up to date with an examination of the financial crisis, demanding to speak to the bosses of companies at the center of the collapse and demanding that banks give back the hundreds of billions of bailout dollars to the country.
And he interviews an employee of a firm which buys up re-possessed, or "distressed" properties at a fraction of their original value and which is called Condo Vultures.
Michael Moore, that paragon of honesty and integrity is about to do it once again ... why do people listen to this ignorant man?
Does anyone wonder why this ball of human waste charges people to see his propaganda?
Does anyone wonder why he doesn't give away to the poor of the world, all of his profits? One of his homes?
Does anyone wonder why he chooses to live in a country that he so obviously hates and wants to completely change?
Does anyone think he travel's to Cuba to get the health-care he needs given his endless praise for their Communist health-care system in his "film", SiCKO?
Does anyone care that no one in the main-stream, dino-media ever questions his methods, conclusions or praise for all systems that would crush his form of idiocy?
The answers to all of these questions are very simple and easy. Mr. Moore and his other leftist-elitists in Hollywood would not be able to live in the life-style they have grown accustomed to if they did not work and take advantage of the benefits of the very economic and political system they trash. After all, as ignorant as they are, they are not stupid. If they lived in Castro's Cuba or Chavez's Venezuela, would they be able to generate the income that affords them the private jets, the chauffeur driven limos and the mansions? Only if they were held in favor by the current dictator and part of the ruling-class.
If they were not, would they be able to soak the very Capitalist system they hate for the wealth it generates? Would they be able to market themselves to the hard-working Capitalists who would be necessary in order to sell the tickets needed to generate the cash? Would they amass their fortunes in a state controlled film industry? I could be wrong, but I'd say it's doubtful.
To borrow a phrase, these "useful idiots", by peddling their wares in a system of marketing that exists only in the United States, are able to generate wealth far beyond anything a state run system would. The very Capitalist system those such as Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand, Rosie O'Donnell, Oliver Stone, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Mike Ferrell, Jeneane Garofelo, Cher, Julia Roberts, et al trash and want changed to be "more fair", is the very system that allows them to spout anything they choose, regardless of how insane or without merit it may be. It is the very system that provides them with the ability to live the lifestyle they do.
Why do they not all leave this hate-filled, racist country that breads inequality and unfairness? It is a good question for I know that they all think that they would all have the priveliges of power and wealth for they would all be among the "ruling-elite" ... or would they? Once again, they are ignorant, not stupid.
