Is Capitalism a Love Story or Nightmare?

Many Americans think that Capitalism and Democracy are the same thing.  This is simply not true.

Michael Moore has proven again and again that he has a remarkable feel for where the zeitgeist is heading. He’s like a zeitgeist divining rod.

Roger and Me was way ahead of the curve on the collapse of the auto-industry. Fahrenheit 9/11 was way ahead of the curve on the collapse of the house of cards the Bush administration used to lead us to war in Iraq. Sicko was way ahead of the curve on the collapse of the US health care system. And now with his new movie Capitalism: A Love Story he is riding the wave of the collapse of trust in our country’s financial system.

The film, which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday, and all across the country on October 2nd, is a withering indictment of the current economic order, covering everything from Wall Street’s casino mentality to for-profit prisons, from Goldman Sachs’ sway in Washington to the poverty-level pay of many airline pilots, from the tidal wave of foreclosures to the tragic consequences of runaway greed.

The film also turns the spotlight on some underreported gems: an internal Citibank report happily declaring America a “plutonomy,” with 1 percent of the population controlling 95 percent of the wealth; an expose of “dead peasant” insurance policies that have companies cashing in on the untimely deaths of their employees; and amazing footage of FDR, found buried in a film archive and not seen in decades, calling for a Second Bill of Rights that would guarantee all Americans a useful job, a decent home, adequate health care, and a good education.

In capitalism as envisioned by its leading lights, including Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall, you need a moral foundation in order for free markets to work. And when a company fails, it fails. It doesn’t get bailed out using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. What we have right now is Corporatism. It’s welfare for the rich. It’s the government picking winners and losers. It’s Wall Street having their taxpayer-funded cake and eating it too. It’s socialized losses and privatized gains.

While unfurling yellow crime scene tape in front of a “too big to fail” bank, he became aware of a group of New York’s finest approaching him. Moore has a long history of dealing with policemen and security guards trying to shut him down, but in this case he knew he was, however temporarily, defacing private property. And his shooting schedule didn’t leave room for a detour to the local jail. So, as the lead officer came closer, Moore tried to deflect him, saying: “Just doing a little comedy here, officer. I’ll be gone in a minute, and will clean up before I go.”

The officer looked at him for a moment, then leaned in: “Take all the time you need.” He nodded to the bank and said, “These guys wiped out a lot of our Police Pension Funds.” The officer turned and slowly headed back to his squad car. Moore wanted to put the moment in his film, but realized it could cost the cop his job, and decided to leave it out. “When they’ve lost the police,” he told me, “you know they’re in trouble.”