LA Times: Michael Moore film says capitalism must die

[marmar]

Michael Moore film says capitalism must die


Twenty years after getting his start at the Toronto film festival with "Roger & Me," Michael Moore was back Sunday night among 1,400 cheering friends for the first public screening of "Capitalism: A Love Story," without question destined to be his most controversial film yet. Even the protesters out front were in his camp.

This time the documentary filmmaker's target is not a corporate titan, like General Motors' CEO Roger Smith was all those years ago, but a concept -- capitalism -- so American as to seem like the country would cease to exist without it. And so, by extension, Moore's target is us, a population that his film argues has come to confuse capitalism with democracy, which is the one thing he believes could actually save us.

It is an extremely risky gambit and Moore knows it.

"At least we'll have one good night with a bunch of Socialists from Canada," Moore said as the crowd roared.

As good a filmmaker as Moore is, he's not bad as a stand-up either. The film was screening in the city's historic Elgin Theatre in the Visa Screening Room. Soon after taking the stage in his now familiar trucker's hat, suit and tennis shoes, he crooned sotto voce "Welcome to the Visa screening room, Visa..." before telling about the nervous calls he got asking if there was anything about the credit card giant in his film.

But it was, for the most part, not a night for laughs as the film opened with a '50s-style health warning -- those with heart conditions, or small children, should leave immediately. While it drew laughs, they weren't hearty ones because the subtext was clear, this was going to be no easy ride. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/awards/2009/09/michael-moore-says-capitalism-must-die.html

[whirlygigspin]

1. "I'll buy that for a dollar!"

n/t

[anonymous171]

2. Capitalism is becoming more and more of a threat to democracy.

I know which system I prefer.

[tavalon]

25. Wow, have you lived under democracy?

I wonder what it's like?

I know what living under capitalism is like - serfdom. But it's all I've ever known and that makes me sad. I practice socialism within my own home but unfortunately, I still have to live under the yoke outside of my home.

[Why Syzygy]

3. Can't wait to see it.

MM gets me to the theater every few years.

[RoccoR5955]

4. Capitalism is unsustainable

because it implies infinite resources on our planet. We all know that there are finite resources, and the greed of capitalism is not the answer, when so few have so much, and so many have so little. We have to share the resources so that all of us can have something.

[sam sarrha]

5. the only way capitalism will end is under the heel of the people...

[TxRider]

6. Good luck with that...

[kenny blankenship]

7. It was a classic case of kill or be killed.

No jury would convict!

[izquierdista]

8. The place for capitalism

I'll go out on a limb here and defend capitalism where I think it works well -- for things that don't matter much. In a complex society with a plethora of consumer products, capitalism does a pretty good job of the manufacture and distribution of things like toasters, toilet paper, tin foil, tomatoes, tennis shoes, tampons, turkeys and turkey basters, t-shirts, towels, toothpaste and toothbrushes, tea, teacups and teapots, tables, turnips, TVs, TV dinners, TV trays, and TV remotes.

It would be a nightmare to try and centrally plan an economy to provide all of the items on the above list, and it would sap time and energy from planning things that really matter: health care, roads, education, housing -- you know, the things that people depend on.

[marmar]

9. I agree totally......

The so-called "free market" shouldn't be allowed to control the essentials of life, but it's fine for discretionary items.

[Lagomorph]

10. It works for more than that.

You can't really forecast all the needs that might show up. Disasters, emergencies or quality issues can throw the whole plan into the trash. Russia and China tried and it never worked out for them. They only got the numbers by drastically lowering quality.

Whenever we need a whole lot of something we don't have, it's good to have sources for production and materials. Outsourcing is making it difficult, and even impossible, to maintain what we've already built. Even today, some parts and machines can only be gotten from China or India and they must be totally rebuilt as soon as they hit the docks. You don't want to tear the roof off a building, drop a generator ten stories underground, build a new roof and then do it six months later.

At the same time, privatizing the power grid, roads and utilities hasn't accomplished what was promised.

[Hugabear]

11. In other words, Walmart

You pretty much just described what Walmart sells, and they are one of the WORST predatory corporations out there.

[izquierdista]

15. And I don't need Walmart at all

So fuk'em.

[anonymous171]

16. I agree. Centrally planned economies suck.

That's why the means of production should be owned by the workers, not the state.

[Mixopterus]

17. Absolutely

I agree 100%

[Swamp Rat]

18. +1

:thumbsup:

[AntiFascist]

19. What makes capitalism work is competition...

if the state produced everything then what need is there to listen to the consumer? On the other hand, there is a strong argument to be made that we focus too much on consumption.

[Luminous Animal]

28. And in every competition there will be losers.

And boy oh boy do we ever hate those losers and our political policies ensure that they are punished each and every day of their loser lives. In the U.S. we exalt the competition and kick the losers to the curb. It's cognitive dissonance.

[AntiFascist]

40. The corporations who should be losing....

are the greedy and predatory ones who take advantage of the customer and can only survive through unbridled growth (a la Enron) or through government handouts. Competition, together with proper regulation, can ensure that corporations serve everyone. We should be paying more attention to the details of healthcare reform, where regulation is really being put to the test.

[NuttyFluffers]

29. isn't capitalism really about capital; trade, in its various forms, already has competition

even in barter economies you have to have a product worth trading, and even then, you have to compete versus others who want or need the same item.

no, i think it's quite evident what capitalism is about. it's not a synonym about trade and competition -- a confusion we often hold in our mind -- but about ownership and how ownership is conceptualized. capitalist legal structures favor legal fictions such as corporations which often depend on assets for collateral, supplied by loans (with interest) and shares. you end up with most insurance and banking institutions wielding immense accounts (such as pension groups) that have to hunt down for the highest yield mutual fund. yet these banks and insurance groups are now so large and bloated that they cannot actively hold the corporation in check as responsive shareholders. in turn you develop a nouveaux eunuch class of servants running the kingdom -- a.k.a CEO fatcats bouncing around from company to company with their parachutes all the while networking and updating their rolodexes.

essentially you run on credit while charging interest (usury) and become dependent on an ever expanding market to exploit. but it will never catch up to quench the debt's thirst because its also a legal fiction in the first place. eventually societies have to hit the reset button and start again; they do this pretty regularly, so now should be no different.

[AntiFascist]

38. Ownership is the real issue...

when a few owners own the biggest corporations that have grown out of control then that is how we end up with our current problems. What the big corporations really fear is competition. Witness the current push for a public healthcare option: they dread the thought of a non-profit corporation being able to compete, but this is really an example of highly regulated capitalism working at its best.

There is incredible power that can be wielded through regulation, if we only could begin to understand how to use that power and force the politicians to work for us instead of the big corporate powers.

[Luminous Animal]

21. I'm just guessing that Mike's message is far more complex

than "capitalism must die". In fact, I'm pretty sure that his point will be that we must stop conflating our economic system with our political system. That is, our political system is a democracy and our capitalistic economic system must be subservient to our political system and regulated for the people and by the people.

[Cleita]

12. I hope we can get it down here.

It was hard to find a viewing of "Sicko". Thank god it was online.

[branders seine]

13. so tickets are free then?

I agree with him, but it's ubiquitous in our society.

[arcadian]

14. So was slavery at one time.

[Maru Kitteh]

23. So seriously, does that mean the tickets are free?

[Luminous Animal]

26. Why should they be?

[branders seine]

31. if I have to buy a ticket, that is Capitalism,

which is evil.

[Luminous Animal]

34. You don't have to buy a ticket. You don't have to watch the movie

at all.

Without a doubt, this movie will advocate the death of capitalism as a political structure and try to explain why capitalism is an economic structure that should be subject to democratic control. Here in the U.S., we tend to conflate democracy and capitalism.

[branders seine]

41. whatever I choose to do,

selling tickets is capitalism, which is evil

[flvegan]

20. Capitalism isn't the problem. Greed is.

That's it, that's all.

[cbdo2007]

37. The socialists here won't understand this until their capitalism is gone.

Then they'll wonder why that didn't fix any of their problems and they'll complain about how little money they have.

[ddeclue]

22. How about if we just slipped it a tranquilizer Mike?

:eyes:

[Occulus]

27. A step in that direction would be the abolishment of corporate personhood.

In fact, that would be several paces in that direction, if not the whole deal.

[Rex]

24. I hate to say it, but if that is the news then we all knew about it a long time ago.

Rome indeed.

[moondust]

30. Small business capitalism is great.

It gives individuals a thing of their own to get creative with and be their own boss. Keeps life interesting. Big Business capitalism and its underlying insatiable greed is the problem as I see it.

[Echo In Light]

32. Translation = Moore just wants to see "The System Crash and BURN!"

:sarcasm:

[Voltaire]

33. No that would be me

Voltaire wants to see the system crash and burn. No sarcasm thingy necessary.

[Javaman]

35. A good companion movie would be, "The Corporation".

the interview with Noam Chomsky, is worth it alone.

[cbdo2007]

36. Isn't Moore "biting the hand that feeds" here? No one would know who he is w/o capitalism.

[deaniac21]

39. Oh!

Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!