Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story comes home to the issue he's been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world).
But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene far wider than Flint, Michigan. From Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan, Michael Moore will once again take film goers into uncharted territory. With both humor and outrage, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story explores a taboo question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Years ago, that love seemed so innocent.
Today, however, the American dream is looking more like a nightmare as families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore takes us into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere.
What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal... and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. Capitalism: A Love Story is both a culmination of Moore's previous works and a look into what a more hopeful future could look like. It is Michael Moore's ultimate quest to answer the question he's posed throughout his illustrious filmmaking career: Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do?
Free trade without rules is a cheater's paradise, whether capitalism or communism. Cannot be cured by Consumer Protection Bureau to level the playing field. Needs the morality of scruples even churches no longer teach enveloped in the system of sink or swim called Capitalism the way we allow it to be unleahed among corporates and banking, even in government & Congress. Autocrats choice of winners and losers, emboldened by the power they hold, and seek to misuse it for their own benefit. Trump is the perfect example too many tolerate to preserve the system in hopes they one day will become such a winner, the object of his show, The Apprentice, where the show taught the dark side of capitalism and entrepreneurial spirit - the benefit of greed and malice toward all as the new spirit of America?
To everyone here complaining about MM claiming "capitalism" when it should be "corporatism":
If you had heard/viewed any of Moore's myriad interviews, website articles/comments, or read any of his books, you'd already know that he's stated multiple times he has no problem with the concept of capitalism. Nor does he have a problem with the concept of profit, conservatism, or those who wish to carve out a better life for themselves involving bigger and better things.
His problem is that corporatism in all its excessive greed IS what capitalism has become today. It is no longer defined as the simple concept of a business struggling to stay fresh and competitive while remaining beneficial - it's now defined as a system where businesses are juggernaut entities that have the government in their back pocket, and continually place ridiculous profit margins ahead of anything else, to the point where they literally leave devastation in their wake for the sake of saving a few extra dollars.
The race to acquire to excess dominates American society and it trickles down from these business giants and shady politicians, right to our educational system, media, and our pop culture - in a way that is staggering when compared to any other advanced nation in the world.
The people of the U.S. take this rat race toward the American Dream for granted, and all the while the entire system of shady business practices, outsourcing, downsizing, lay-offs, grossly uneven distribution of funds, for profit healthcare, poor education, etc., can all so easily be eliminated should the people realize THEY have the power to instill regulation, standards, ethics, and a little humanity into how everything is run in their country.
This by far is my favorite Michael Moore movie. He stays on topic, he stays off camera for the most part and has a very good story to tell of the haves and have-nots.
20 years in from "Roger and Me" and Michael Moore still continues to be one of the ultimately greatest voices for political sanity I know of, by making what is BY FAR one of the most important documentaries EVER! I'm re-watching it at home, and realizing TOTALLY, that it is/(was) impossible to get it all on the first viewing... and I'm now also discovering that the DVD extras are truly FANTASTIC! Congressman Elijah Cummings, shedding a tear from his right eye, as he is being interviewed by Michael about the PERMANENT and catastrophic LOSSES being suffered by middle class and poor people, is SO SUPERB! The FDR speech about a new (2nd) Bill of Rights is incredible!!! Spread this film around... it is relevant now more than ever... and its issues are SO crucial to our survival as a species on the planet and any lasting hopes for "We the People" to be free from the obscene + greedy bastards' oppressions! If I were a teacher my class would see this film... whatever I was charged with teaching. Live forever Michael Moore - you are TRULY a saint!!!
The ignorance of economics in this mockumentary film is amazing. BUT WHAT IS MOST AMAZING is the audience who agree with Michael Moron
Mary Brik, you should really do your information and not believe those so-called "facts". Please do your research properly before claiming an argument.
The shortcomings of capitalism cannot be remedied by running head first into the shortcomings of socialism.
"This is capitalism, a system of taking and giving. Mostly taking." Oh, another very well done polemic film by Michael Moore - brilliant at spinning the truth, omitting important information, and painting reality black and white - a master propagandist. He is vague and ambiguous. How about this for example: "This is socialism, a system of taking and giving. Mostly taking." The words capitalism and socialism are perfectly interchangeable and exacts a truth in both ideologies. Or how about this: "This is friendship, a system of taking and giving. Mostly taking." Michael Moore is a very clever man. I just wonder if he realizes that he uses the same tools of persuasion and techniques of propaganda as the government he abhors?
islam is the answer 2 ur problems chek out how the islamic economic system works!!! america is 1 fukd up country and they want 2 go around da world telling other people how 2 establsh "dmcrcy" dat is why islam doesnt deal with usuary of any kind cus it exploits da people!!!!by peggy don
goooooood movie very eye opening
Capitalism isn't fundamentaally flawed but it allows for too much exploitation. I'm not bothered about statistics and numbers but when 1 per cent of the population of a country not only own 90 per cent of the wealth but also can use that wealth to directly control that country then there is a problem there. Capitalism is a destructive cycle of borrowing, buying selling, debt and borrowing again, and when it does work it works reasonbly well, it's good to most people, but when it dosen't work it has catastrophic consequences, communism dosen't work either, neither does despotism, nor fascism nor it seems democracy. Perhaps we need to find a middle ground, a compromise that gives and takes equally to and from everyone, maybe we need to change our humanity for that to happen but then again do you really want to keep living under this injustice? Just food for thought...
i do not feel that capitalism has failed. i beleive the goverment failed the people and therefore the people should become the goverment. Are forefathers created what they called a near perfect system and unfortunatly this system after many years of service has failed us. it appears the rich have found holes in the system and use it to there advantage. lobbiyst not the people control the votes. we no longer need a house of representives, a senate, a supreme court, or a president. with todays technology the people can vote individually on laws and regulations. why not at the age of eighteen the people recieve a pda that gives a description of the law and a unbiased test to make sure they understand it so they could then vote. hench the eliminations of lobbyist and the rich having control. schools on a highschool level should teach politics to an extent to were they understand the world.
i do not feel that capitalism has failed. i beleive the goverment failed the people and therefore the people should become the goverment. Are forefathers created what they called a near perfect system and unfortunatly this system after many years of service has failed us. it appears the rich have found holes in the system and use it to there advantage. lobbiyst not the people control the votes. we no longer need a house of representives, a senate, a supreme court, or a president. with todays technology the people can vote individually on laws and regulations. why not at the age of eighteen the people recieve a pda that gives a description of the law and a unbiased test to make sure they understand it so they could then vote. hench the eliminations of lobbyist and the rich having control. schools on a highschool level should teach politics to an extent to were they understand the world.
What the heck?! Most of the things he blames on capitalism happen just as much, if not worse, in a Communist state. The corrupt law system? Well, try living in f--king North Korea, honey! People in East Germany were usually arrested without even a trace of a fair trial! And the picture he paints of Germany is hilarious - I am German, and I can assure you we are not the promised land where Unions can just fire a CEO, wtf. I love Michael Moore's other docs, but this one is badly researched and based on weird half-facts.
Anyone who says capitalism works because it provides a motivation is ignorant and fails to see the bigger picture. Of course it does for a time, but the only way for a seller to make a profit is if the consumer spends and money is transferred from the consumer to the seller. This has, is, and will always result in a perverse exploitation in which the consumer is bound by the expenses of necessities, and can never make a living due to the discrepancies of wealth. For example, a person cannot make a profit out of selling apples if he does not have enough money to buy the apples in the first place, and this is what is happening without regulation of wealth and money. And do you really need to have all these luxuries? Do you really need 5 homes all across America while people are struggling to find a job and living in the back of vans? I hate America as a country because it claims to offer equal opportunity , and yet it seems like only the rich will ever be able to afford good education (and so their children will have more chance of being rich etc.) and healthcare. These need to be nationalised. We Europeans are always antagonised by America because of our socialist principles and yet generally we seem to be the ones who are happier and not being revolutionised by our own people.
Capitalism is best. Not the way it is now practiced. I buy what I want. I persue my goals as best I can. I try, may fail, then try again and may find some success. With what I have I may choose to help others to an extent I feel capable of and willing to. Capitalism is best. Not the way it is now practiced.
We're going to end up trading chickens and computer chips... I just know it.
Edited: I forgot to mention that this video upload isn't that good. It kept stopping every five minute or so. Best that you download it from a respectable file downloading program like piratebay.
Gotta get down to it,soldiers are cutting us down!
COMMUNISM!!!!
Capitalism - A failed economic system.
Despite the biggest financial catastrophe in history I see there's still some are still selling the "free market" American dream, when it's clear Goldman Sachs et al took advantage of that dream. It's the ideology of "free market" capitalism that is the reason behind the crisis, ie, the deregulation and associated practices was the ideology of "free market" capitalism in concrete practice. The "free market" only exists in fairy tales written by the likes of Hayek and Friedman. It is in reality your worst nightmare.
You're talking about the 1000 richest... After rich comes wealthy ;) Those are like 1000 in total... And they don't care about you only about getting more more more and more!!!!!!!!!!!! Those didn't became rich by working hard but just because they were born with the right (blue) blood
I am amazed that the people of America are now so divided that they will not work together for a common good. This is a sad fact, and our children and grandchildren will pay for our complacency.
Money`s value is whatever people make it, so lets use it for collective goods, not the individual`s greed...
Essentially and let's keep this simple...the system is not working for the majority.
In this century it is a reality that millions of people from 1st world to 3rd are living in extreme poverty without the basics needed for human existence. This continues because it is profitable.
We are distracted on a daily basis, to want things, to strive to achieve a certain level of existence weighed against wealth and possessions, men and women are sold insecurities through celebrites, make up, miracle cures- all to make us strive for what cannot be achieved, to keep us spending, wanting and indebting ourselves.
While people starve, get kicked out of their family homes because mortgages rocketed without notice or reason, countried where citizens have to pay for health care, education becomes for the wealthy- ostracising the gifted, hard working, creative, passionate people who can't afford to learn...or they do at a higher cost of crippling themselves with debt for years.
Time for everyone to peacefully protest, speak out, take issue with these things and try to make a contribution...
Every year in the UK we are encouraged to give to charity, huge televised events with big celebrity names pushing the public to give and fair play...they really do and raise millions for the sick, needy etc...
How much easier would it be for the top 1000 richest people on Earth to give half of their wealth...truth is the top of the pyramid don't want the whold world to be prosperous, self sufficient and without need...because those countries wouldn't need to borrow any more money and pay high interest either...perhaps they would be less willing to sell their land at flat rate too...
Everything has a reason...
For every suffering, injustice or madness...trace it back...
Often the reason is greed.
Amazing movie, very poignant! I am going to use it as a recruitment tool for youth activism at my college, because it is sophisticated yet frank enough to get the point across easily to students, although it doesn't directly go into depth on how the system is screwing students I'll use that as my cue to connect the dots for them. Thank you for taking the time to make such a great work for the people.