The proof that "Capitalism: A Love Story" is a surpassingly stupid movie is evident from its heavy breathing over FDR's abortive "Second Bill of Rights"—which, if the President had but lived to push it through Congress, would supposedly have established economic justice and equality by law. This second Bill of Rights was actually included in FDR's 1944 State of the Union message. Here's his list of proposed new rights: "The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing 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 businessman, 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 home; The 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."
Now of course this is all humbug. However attractive these so-called rights might seem in principle, a government attempting to enact them would soon acquire near-totalitarian powers. And no conceivable government could obtain the necessary data, much less mobilize the wisdom, to make these rights effective. Even in FDR's day, the promise of economic planning was a sad delusion. A national economy on the US scale is simply too large and complex to be managed by government experts and bureaucrats. For these reasons, one would have expected Moore's film to be greeted with hoots of derision. But since, as the French say, a fool can always find a bigger fool to admire him, "Capitalism: A Love Story" was saluted in certain quarters with hosannas and waving palm branches.
Moore proposes replacing evil capitalism with "democracy." And though he's leery of using the precise word, the astute viewer soon grasps his point. Socialism! Socialism will save America from the greedy clutches of corrupt politicians and their sinister corporate paymasters! Okay, so maybe this idea didn't work too well in Russia, China, etc.—but whatever his deficiencies as an economist, Moore understands his audience well enough. He knows that few of them learned any history in school and are largely unaware of the catastrophic results of every past attempt to establish socialism. He also knows that people like to be told what they want to hear—in this case, that they can have all the goodies they want for free if only a "democratic" government existed to provide them. So despite the stupidity of his film, I suppose that I must concede to the filmmaker a certain low cunning.
Moore being Moore, he drives his point home in a typically heavy-handed manner, with the usual collection of sob stories. But while it's tough to lose your house because you can't afford the mortgage payments, that's a relatively minor tragedy compared to a sojourn in the Gulag or a bullet in the back of the neck. I doubt that the pathetic victims of capitalism he parades across the screen could endure living in Cuba, North Korea or Vietnam for even a single day. And that's why Moore's expose of American economic injustice is largely bogus: He measures America against an airy ideological fantasy, a socialist paradise that has never existed and never could exist in this real world of fallible, imperfect human beings.
Grownup people understand all this. Michael Moore, of course, is not a grownup, and his film is merely the power fantasy of an arrested adolescent.
Now of course this is all humbug. However attractive these so-called rights might seem in principle, a government attempting to enact them would soon acquire near-totalitarian powers. And no conceivable government could obtain the necessary data, much less mobilize the wisdom, to make these rights effective. Even in FDR's day, the promise of economic planning was a sad delusion. A national economy on the US scale is simply too large and complex to be managed by government experts and bureaucrats. For these reasons, one would have expected Moore's film to be greeted with hoots of derision. But since, as the French say, a fool can always find a bigger fool to admire him, "Capitalism: A Love Story" was saluted in certain quarters with hosannas and waving palm branches.
Moore proposes replacing evil capitalism with "democracy." And though he's leery of using the precise word, the astute viewer soon grasps his point. Socialism! Socialism will save America from the greedy clutches of corrupt politicians and their sinister corporate paymasters! Okay, so maybe this idea didn't work too well in Russia, China, etc.—but whatever his deficiencies as an economist, Moore understands his audience well enough. He knows that few of them learned any history in school and are largely unaware of the catastrophic results of every past attempt to establish socialism. He also knows that people like to be told what they want to hear—in this case, that they can have all the goodies they want for free if only a "democratic" government existed to provide them. So despite the stupidity of his film, I suppose that I must concede to the filmmaker a certain low cunning.
Moore being Moore, he drives his point home in a typically heavy-handed manner, with the usual collection of sob stories. But while it's tough to lose your house because you can't afford the mortgage payments, that's a relatively minor tragedy compared to a sojourn in the Gulag or a bullet in the back of the neck. I doubt that the pathetic victims of capitalism he parades across the screen could endure living in Cuba, North Korea or Vietnam for even a single day. And that's why Moore's expose of American economic injustice is largely bogus: He measures America against an airy ideological fantasy, a socialist paradise that has never existed and never could exist in this real world of fallible, imperfect human beings.
Grownup people understand all this. Michael Moore, of course, is not a grownup, and his film is merely the power fantasy of an arrested adolescent.
Tell Your Friends