Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Why "a Love Story"?

Today I saw Capitalism, a Love Story a documentary by Michael Moore. Why "A Love Story"? I asked myself!
"The film explores a taboo question: what price does America pay for its love of capitalism? Years ago, that love seemed so innocent. Capitalism meant productivity and security. Now, as financial institutions run amok and families lose their savings, the American dream is looking more like a nightmare."
What does Capitalism mean?
Joel wrote to me about Moore's film in an email: "He hits hard on the banks' takeover of our government and the hardships of foreclosure, as millions suffer while a few get very rich. It's even worse than this, though, with equity firms having bought out companies and borrowed on equity (the value of the companies) leaving once healthy companies in debt and ailing, having to fire many workers and cut pensions. The social damage is huge that these galloping bankers have done, all legally.

Unlike the Great Depression, the banks, generally speaking, are not in as much trouble as the citizenry, with an effective unemployment rate of 17%, or 1/6 of the workforce. This is horrendous. But it could stabilize this way, without the political will to correct things for the mass of people, while our middle class is destroyed, and our banks continue to make profits, while seeking markets abroad, abandoning the US population. These giant banks simply bankroll the Democrats, so there is no party with the will to reign them in. Moore communicates this, and he gives us historical background for it, too, going back to Reagan."

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