Extra Credit Entry: Capitalism Rhetoric

The movie “Capitalism: A Love Story-Documentary” by Michael More is a picture of the real America without a mask. This is like watching USA without the “pink glasses” that the Hollywood movies usually give you. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgcdtOcfqfc

The movie starts with showing bank robberies. This is the first thing we usually see when we turn on any T.V.station- police statistics. Everybody hears the local police reports in the news, but nobody hears about the stolen money from the American people by the big corporations and banks. 

The association that was made between USA and agent Rome had the purpose to worn the American people that our country will have the same destiny if we do not take action. From my history lessons growing up in Bulgaria, I know that some of the reasons for the Rome Empire's failure were the greediness and the demoralization of the Roman society which started from the top, the emperor and the governing body.

 

The main idea of the movie is to show that the monopolized capitalism, ruling the country through corporate organizations, which dictate the stock market through Wall Street and the parliament through influential figures (which are actually the CEOs of the same corporations and banks), is bringing failure to this country.

When Michael More was trying to clarify what capitalism means, I remembered my history class. I was taught that capitalism is an organization of a society in which there is a small percent of very rich people and the rests are poor. The rich become rich through the exploitation of the workers, though giving them minimum wages, not paying them any benefits and healthcare, not giving them money for education. The whole system is made in a way to keep the wealth of the rich in their hands. The children of the rich should become the future capitalists and the children of the poor should become the future workers to produce to profits and the goods for the rich. I thought that this kind of social system is long gone, at least half a century ago with the end of the Second World War. My history classes taught me (consider the fact that I grew up in a socialist country) that USA was the first democratic republic, with the first democratic constitution in the world. You can imagine our pride when we received our Green cards to come to live in the most democratic country.

Michael More gives a lot of historical facts in chronological order to support his thesis. He shows documentaries and interviews with people who were victims of the house market clash in 2008. I will never forget that time. I almost foreclosed my house and it was heartbreaking for me watching these hard working people being treated like criminals while evicted from their houses. I showed the movie to my children and told them that we could be on the place of this people. I remember nobody said anything on the news to warn us for the coming disaster, nobody told us who did this to us, and nobody helped us. I remember my neighbors disappearing one by one and at the end only few homeowners left. The homeowners association increased our association fee so we would pay the fee of the neighbors who foreclosed their homes. 

The ordinary working people lost their houses, were treated like criminals, and the banks get their money from the Congress. These were actually OUR MONEY, of these same people, who worked to pay our mortgages, bills, credit card bills with 30% interest, homeowners’ association fees, and taxes. If this is not a crime and the biggest unfairness in the world, I do not know what else. I do not see anything DEMOCRATIC in these actions of our government.

Michael More shows how the economic was flourishing without competition in the past. When President Reagan was elected our country became a “corporations’ country” and the taxes for the rich were cut by 50%. The small, even big businesses like GM filed bankruptcy, leaving thousands of people without jobs. In this way the top 1 % of the population, the bankers and the CEOs of the big corporations became even richer. The filmmaker shows names, numbers, and documents, made interviews with congress representatives revealing the story how they were politically tricked by fear to sign “A BAIL FOR OUR ECONOMY.” And this was purposely done just a few weeks before the elections for very short period of time so the congressmen would not have time to review any documents. "They TOOK 700 BILLION OF OUR TAX MONEY! The CEOs of the biggest financial institutions backed a pickup truck at the door of the Treasure Department and took our money.” Our congress representatives failed us. The author called it a “Financial coup d’état.”

The demoralization of the society was shown by the examples of “Dead Peasants” money taken by the big monopolies when an employee dies; or by the juvenile facilities where young people were imprisoned because of stupid, typical teenage behaviors so the lawyers and judges become rich.

Why people do not do anything, do not protest? Mr. More has an explanation for that too. The propaganda of “brainwashing” the people, making them to believe that someday they can become rich too and reach the “AMERICAN DREAM” is a very good tactic. The ordinary people worship their rich county men; put them on first pages of magazines, look up to them as role models and heroes because they want to be like them someday “if they just keep trying hard enough.” Meanwhile he shows a video with the jumping little puppy representing us, the little people, trying to reach the food on the table (the wealth) and the big dog, representing the wealthy people, eating the bone, showing that the rich had never indented to “share it with anyone.”

The filmmaker visited Washington D.C. to check if it is written in our CONSTITUTION anything about the economic system and specifically words like “free market, “free enterprise”, and “capitalism” which were used from President G.W. Bush to show how our country became rich and successful. He did not find any one of these words. The words that he found were: “WE, the PEOPLE”, “UNION”, and “Promoting GENERAL WELFARE.” He made the conclusion that this is “DEMOCRACY.” He then went to show a solution to our economy: democracy at the workplace. He gave us examples of workers’ owned businesses. The dictatorship at work represented by the corporate companies is replaced by democratically run businesses, where all of the workers are the owners of the business.

At the end of the movie, Michael Moore goes to the banks who took our money, the headquarters of Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Chase and other banks with empty bags to ask them to return our money or trying to make citizen arrests of the CEOs. It was the most humorous part of the movie. The music, the gestures, the talk of the filmmaker to the security guards and the policeman was made in a way to show that this is not the way to get our money back. You can imagine the reaction; he was thrown out by the security guards and managers.  

And then “the unusual happened”, the American turned against their rich on the Wall Street protest.

 

The American people chose a new direction, the direction of the “CHANGE.” Our new President Obama was called “socialist” because he wanted to “spread the wealth.”His winning of the elections inspired people like the sheriff in Detroit who decided to break the law by stopping all mortgage foreclosure sales in the county. Then we hear words like “Community Power” and people fighting back to take their houses back. The fired workers started strikes calling Bank of America: “Bank Robbers of America”, supported from the community, the Bishop, and the President.

Mr. More tells the story about the fight of the Union of workers against the corporate of the GM factories in Flint, Michigan in 1936. This was the first union “that beat the industrial corporation and their actions resulted in the creation of a middle class.” The President Roosevelt agreed that the workers had the right to protest for better life. In 1941 the President Roosevelt proposed a “Second Bill of Rights” to the Constitution and then he shows the speech of the President. This is an example of democracy and it is very unfortunate that the “Second Bill of Rights” was never accepted.

 

If it was successive, “Every person in America, regardless of race, would have had a right to a decent job, a livable wage, universal healthcare, a good education, and affordable home, a paid vacation, and an adequate pension. None of this would come to pass. No American got any of these. But the people of Europe and Japan got everyone of these rights.” Then he gives examples how “the Italian Constitution gave all women equal rights and this was 1947.” In Japan “all workers have the right to organize in unions and the academic freedom is guaranteed.” But for the Americans the “Second Bill of Rights” never became reality.

At the end Michael Moore says:” I refuse to live in a country like this and I am not leaving.” Then he pulls the yellow sign: “Crime Scene Do Not Cross” around the buildings of the big financial institutions and says;” We live in the richest country in the world. WE ALL DESERVE A DECENT JOB, HEALTHCARE, A GOOD EDUCATION, A HOME TO CALL A HOME. We all deserve the American dream and it is a crime that we do not have it. And we will never have as long as we have a system that reaches the few at the expense of the many. CAPITALISM IS AN EVIL and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it, replace it with something that is good for all people. And that something is called: DEMOCRACY!”

Then he addresses his audience, us, the people that watch this film to join him, because he cannot do this on his own and says: “And please, speed it up.”