Capitalismâ€a Propaganda Story Essay

Michael Moore is the Leni Riefenstahl of our time. Or, perhaps he would be better characterized as a Bizzaro gentlemans gentleman Leni Riefenstahl, because while she propped up with propaganda the political powers of her time, Moore uses the same techniques to bring down the powers of our time, be it GM (Roger and Me), the gun lobby (Bowling for Columbine), the government (Fahrenheit 911), the health care industry (Sicko), or free enterprise (Capitalism A get laid Story).In this latest inst onlyment in his continuing series of whats wrong with America, Michael Moore takes aim at his biggest manoeuvre to date, and the result is a disaster. The documentary is not well-nigh as funny as his previous films, the music selections sop upm contrived and flat, and the edits and transitions are clumsy, wooden, and not nearly as effective as what weve come to expect from the premiere documentarian (Ken Burns notwithstanding) of our time. And, most importantly, the films central thesis is so bad that its not even wrong.First, let me confess that even though I look at disagreed with most of Michael Moores politics and sparings throughout his career, I have thoroughly enjoyed his films as skilled and effective make believes of art and propaganda, never breaching to laugh or be emotionally distraught at all the places audiences are cued to do so. My willing suspension of disbelief that enables me to take so untold pleasure from works of fiction, does not always serve me well when pulled into the news report arc of a documentary. Thus it is that with his past films I have exited the theater infuriated at the same things Moore is until I rolled up my sleeves and did some fact checking of my own, at which point Moores theses unravel (with the possible exception of Bowling for Columbine, his finest work in my opinion). But with Capitalism A Love Story, Moores propagandistic props are so transparent and contrived that I never was able to susp hold on disbelief.What wa s especially infuriating about Capitalism A Love Story was the treatment of the people at the bottom end of the economic spectrum. The film is anchored on two eviction stories contrived to pull at the sum strings. One family filmed the eviction process themselves and sent the footage to Moore in hopes hed use it (many are called, few are chosen), and the other was filmed by Moores crew. The message of both is delivered with a sledge hammer Greedy Evil Soul-Sucking Bankers (think Lionel Barrymores villainous Mr. Potter in Its a rattling(prenominal) Life) are tossing out onto the streets of America poor innocent families who are victims of circumstances not of their making. Why? First, because this is what Greedy Evil Soul-Sucking Bankers do for fun on weekends.Two, because the economic crisis caused solely by said bankers has made it impossible for families to make the payments on those subprime loans they were tricked into taking by those same bankers, who themselves were suckered into a Ponzi-like scheme cooked up by Alan Greenspan and his rampart Street/Federal Reserve buddies to take back the lieus fully owned by (first) the hoary and (then) the poor. In the fine print that the bankers carefully slipped past the elderly and the poor for these second mortgages and subprime loans, the contracts said that the rates on variable rate loans could go up, and that the house was collateral for the loan such that if the loan payments are not made the root word is subject to foreclosure and repossession by the bank (which is what the bankers are hoping happens).In Michael Moores worldview, a goodly portion of the American people are ignorant, unlearned, clueless pinheads too stupid to reliableize the fundamental principle of a loan you have to have collateral to secure the loan No collateral, no loan. You secernate to the banker I would like to take out a loan. The banker says to you what do you have for collateral? What happened in the housing boom was that bankers relaxed their standards for what they would require for collateral (and income, assets, etc.) because (1) the government told them to do so and promised to cover their losses if it didnt work out, and (2) they wanted to make more capital and borrowers wanted in on the cash cow that everyone was milking, from individual house flippers looking for a quick buck, to ordinary families wanting extra cash for remodeling, tuition, or whatever, to mortgage giants wanting corporate expansion. And all were driven by the same motive greedYes, greed. Those evicted families knew perfectly well what they were doing when they freely chose to climb onto the housing bubble and take it for a ride. I have a much higher view of the American public than does Michael Moore. I dont think the American people are so stupid or uneducated that they didnt know what they were doing. This wasnt rocket science. It was even on television, the ne plus ultra of pop culture I well remember watching A & Es t elevision series Flip This House, and reading all those magazine articles and get-rich-quick books on how to make a fortune in the real estate market, and thinking wow, everyones getting rich except me how can I get in on the action?What I felt is, Im sure, what lots of people felt. I looked into securing a second mortgage on my home in order to build a second home on an undeveloped portion of my hillside property, and then selling it to turn a tidy profit. Everyone was doing it. What could go wrong? Well, for starters I thought, what if it takes longer to build the home than I projected? We all know how slow construction projects can be. Could I make the payments on the second mortgage for an additional six months to a course of instruction? And what if I couldnt sell that second home? Could I make the payments on the new loan indefinitely? What if my income decreased instead of increased, like it was at the time (and, subsequently, did dramatically). And what would happen if I c ouldnt make the payments? The answer was obvious, and it wasnt in the fine print I could lose my primary home. swallow that Making a profit on a second home would be nice, but losing my first home would hurt well more than twice as much as making a profit on the second home would feel good. Thats a basic principle of chance aversion losses hurt twice as much as gains feel good. Now, Im not really a risk-averse guy (I gave up a secure career as a college professor for an insecure career as a writer and publisher), but even I could see the inherent risks involved when the home you live in could be taken away. My hillside remains sagebrush and wild grass.What about the people on the other end of the economic spectrum the bankers and Wall Street moguls? Why arent they being evicted. Now, given that Im a libertarian, you might expect me to come to the defense of integrated America. Not so. Here I am in complete agreement with Michael Moore that, as Ive been saying since the day it wa s first pronounced, too big to fail is the great myth of our time. None of these giant corporations GM, AIG, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, et al. should have been bailed out. In fact, they should have been allowed to fail, their stocks go into the toilet, their employees tossed out on to the gilded streets of lower Manhattan, and their CEOs dispersed to work as greeting clerks at Walmart.They gambled and lost on all those securities, bundled securities, derivatives, credit default swaps, and other financial tools that Ill bet not one in a hundred Wall Street experts actually understands. If you really believe in free enterprise, you must accept the freedom to lose everything on such gambles. These CEOs and their corporate lackeys are nothing more than welfare queens who adhere to the motto in profits were capitalists, in losses were socialists. stern guys, you cant have it both ways without corrupting your morals, which you have, along with the politicians youve bribed, cajoled and otherwise coerced to your bidding.The solution? I have some suggestions of my own, but Michael Moores solution is beyond bizarre replace capitalism with democracy. Uh? Replace an economic system with a political system? Even the ber liberal Bill Maher was baffled by that one when he hosted Moore on his HBO show. How does a democracy produce automobiles and computers and search engines? It doesnt. It cant.Capitalism A Love Story, ends with a remarkable film meter that Moore discovered of President Franklin Roosevelt reading from his never proposed second Bill of Rights (he died shortly after and the document died with him). Included in the list areThe responsibility to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation The right on to earn enough to provide qualified food and turn and recreation The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living The right of every bus inessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad The right of every family to a decent homeThe right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment The right to a good education.Thats nice. To this list I would add a computer in every home with wireless Internet access. Im sure we could all think of many more things under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed, in Roosevelts words. But there is one question left unstated Who is tone ending to pay for it? If there is no capitalism, from where will the wealth be generated to pay for all these wonderful things? How much does a decent home costs these days, anyways?Do you see the inherent contradiction? Of course you do. So does Michael Moore, who elsewhere in the film longs for the good old days when the rich were taxed 90% of their earnings. So did Willie Sutton, who answered a similar question after being nabbed by the FBI during the Great Depression and asked by a reporter why he robs banks Because thats where the money is.