Well Michael Moore has another movie coming out and I just saw the trailer. If Michael Moore wanted to make it such, this could be an extremely good documentary about corrupt and sinister connections between government and corporations. After seeing the trailer I am going to have to hypothesize that he will get it wrong, only tell part of the story and/or twist the truth.
The first reason for my doubts is the title, “Capitalism: A Love Story”. Apparently the documentary is about government bailouts of huge corporations, which makes the title very deceptive. Capitalism or the ‘Free Market’ system is definitely not a system in which the government intervenes and takes money from the collective and gives it to mega-corporations that have screwed things up. Doing such is definitely against free market ideas. In fact, in regards to the bailouts George W. Bush said, “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” (Which is like saying, “I killed my dog so I could save my dog”.) Part of the beauty of a capitalist system is that when people undertake unethical practices their businesses can fail miserably due to either a complete erosion of anything solid in the company or from outside influence such as boycotts or law enforcement, in extreme cases. Under different systems, such as a socialist one in which the collective pays taxes which are used to support businesses, it is exponentially more difficult to get rid of bad businesses. Under capitalism, when the big corrupt greedy groups fail then the smaller companies who have not been cheating get to swoop in and fill the void left by the mega-business, because there is still a need for the service. When the mega-banks got bailed out, that kept smaller banks who had not indulged in risky loans from jumping into their rightful place in the capitalist cycle.
Moore’s trailer seems to highlight the Bush administration’s role in the corrupt bailouts. And it was pleasing to see a mention of Goldmann Sachs with its dirty connections to the Bush administration. I would have liked to have also seen the Obama administration’s dirty connections to the very same company highlighted as well. It would also be nice to see him highlight the auto-maker bailouts which were supposed to prevent bankruptcy then restructuring which ended up happening anyway.
I like the idea of making a citizens arrest at AIG but I think Moore’s motives are all wrong. He seems to be trying to use a completely anti-capitalist situation to make a villain of the capitalist system. Of course he might not be but the trailer makes it look that way.
A few things in the trailer are confusing as well. Why does Moore say ‘donde’ to his cameraman who supposedly doesn’t speak English when he wants him to come outside. Maybe it’s my silly gringo ways but I thought ‘donde’ meant ‘where?’. I would have said ‘vamonos afuera’. Another huge thing is that a guy in the video says, “This is straight up capitalism, sch-schk boom” when it is clearly not capitalism. It is much more closely related to socialism, communism or especially fascism. This misrepresentation of capitalism will only serve to solidify many MTV watchers and people who don’t really understand America in their ignorant ways.