[besson3c]

Michael Moore Calls Out ABC Labor Practices On "Good Morning America" (VIDEO)


It looks like Michael Moore was against the bank bailouts, who'd have thunk it?

Let's skip past the reactionary stuff about how he's fat and a liar and all of that stuff. This is understood, it really is. I honestly don't care about Michael Moore himself or what you think about him, scout's honor! Just pretend that somebody else is saying this and tell us what you think, there are some somewhat interesting ideas in here, particularly the whole moral greed angle and the definition of democracy and equality.

[besson3c]

I'm surprised that nobody is jumping all over the hype for this upcoming movie?

Moore made a point somewhere else that capitalism is the "anti-Jesus" in the sense that Jesus never condoned such greed. I wouldn't go as far as to say that we should replace capitalism (I don't think Moore does either, although I could be wrong), but I often think that it could use some reform, particularly when it comes to the relationship between lobbyists and government, the credit card industry, health insurance industry, etc. Most of this reform would probably come in the form of consumer protections in my perfect besson3c world.

[turtle777]

So, he gets 99 things wrong and one thing right. Awesome.

-t

[besson3c]

Whatever Turtle. Like I said, I don't care about MM's report card. Do you have anything to say about the discussion surrounding his movie?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Whatever Turtle. Like I said, I don't care about MM's report card. Do you have anything to say about the discussion surrounding his movie?

Not really, I don't watch his stuff. It's not helpful.

-t

[mduell]

How Goldman Backed Moore's 'Capitalism' Movie

[Chuckit]

I don't care about Moore's report card either, which is why I don't feel the need to discuss his latest outburst.

I will say that I don't at all understand the idea that lobbying has anything to do with capitalism. Capitalism is an economic model. The degree to which private money can influence the government is aside from that. However, I don't think it's easy to stop powerful people from influencing the government no matter how your economy is run.

[besson3c]

Interesting article, mduell... It is ironic how a movie about capitalism is being used to criticize capitalism, but I also disagree with the notion that by criticizing capitalism you feel that we should replace it with another system altogether as this article suggested. There are many ways to regulate a capitalist economy and probably many different labels and forms of capitalism that exist, it's not all or nothing. Moore seems to go a little too far as usual in painting capitalism with a broad brush, but still, he does seem to have some good points.

I also agree that our form of capitalism has sort of run away from us. Greed knows no boundaries, which is why we need to set them. Deregulation is the exact opposite of what we should be doing now. The market doesn't magically fix everything just by its mere existence, the market fixes much more when consumers are protected from the greedy ambitious of the few so that consumers are not preyed upon or victims of scams and other schemes that directly impact the quality of our lives.

This form of greed on Wall St. with no regard for the people and the very system that made this great wealth possible, is a sin. While I'm no religious scholar, if this isn't the sort of greed that the Bible talks about, what is? You could make a compelling argument that people that bought into these mortgages they couldn't really afford are sinners too, the commonality seems to stem from a basic wanting more than what we have, which is the essence of greed, no?

[besson3c]

This documentary seems to follow the usual MM formula... There is an underlying truthiness to aspects of the basic premise and some specific points made in his movies, but his overall message is deluded by him going too far to the point where it's hard to agree on anything.

In his defense, I suppose a more moderate version of his films wouldn't sell. At least he gets people discussing these issues, although I'm not entirely sure what good this does in this climate. It mostly seems to get partisan conservatives pissed off and partisan liberals riled up. We don't really need to turn up the volume on the partisan needling.