The weather here in Austin was pretty bad this weekend, so I decided to go out to the movies to check out Michael Moore's latest opus, "Capitalism: A Love Story."
I know there are people out there, especially here in Texas, who hate Michael Moore. Hate, loathe, despise the guy. On Friday, I was reading a review of the movie while I was at work. One of my co-workers saw me reading it and said:
"Michael Moore is an idiot. I hate that guy." he said.
"Really? Why?" I asked him.
"The guy just lies about everything."
"What did he lie about?" I continue.
"That movie about Bush (Fahrenheit 9/11) was just full of lies." the guy says.
I probe a little more to try to get him to tell me what was a lie in "Fahrenheit 9/11" but I do my best not to provoke him. The last thing I want to do is get into an argument with an angry Texan at work. In the end, he can't tell me what was a lie because he can't remember.
I'll admit that Michael Moore sometimes does take things out of context. The hit piece he did on Charlton Heston in "Bowling For Columbine" was one example. The way the movie was edited made the guy seem like a heartless bastard. I still liked the movie, though, and thought it did bring up a lot of good points about America's obsession with guns.
Not being a fan of George W. Bush, of course I really liked "Fahrenheit 9/11." It just proved what most of us already knew, that Iraq was never really a threat to America, and our invasion of the country was mostly about oil and a personal vendetta that the Bush family had with Saddam Hussein.
Then he made "Sicko", about our faulty healthcare system, and another topic that hits me on a very personal level. Anyone who has read my blog know that I favor universal healthcare for everyone. The movie seemed to imply that Richard Nixon was the instigator of the decline of American healthcare, by approving of the creation of the first "HMO's", where healthcare now became "for profit."
Now, in his latest movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story", it's another Republican president who is being blamed for the destruction of our economy. And no, it's not George W. Bush. It's Ronald Reagan. Once Reagan was elected, he approved the de-regulation of the financial industry. Once there were no more regulations on what banks and financial institutions could do, they went wild. Fraud was everywhere. People where promised mortgages they could afford, only to have them raised again and again by greedy lenders.
Reagan also brought huge tax cuts to the wealthy. In the 1950's and 60's, everyone had health care, houses were affordable for everyone. A single income could take care of an entire family. I come from such a family. My father was an accountant. He didn't make a large salary, but it supported a family of five. FIVE. Could anyone do that now? Hell no. Christy and I would both have to work to even come close to the life my parents had. Why was it better then? Because the wealthiest people in the country paid 90% in taxes. Yep, 90%. It does seem like a lot, but it didn't prevent the rich from staying rich. They were still rich. They still had their opulent lifestyles. So the money they paid in taxes made life better for the entire country. Now it's become everyone for themselves. Survival of the fittest. Is this what they teach in church? Is this what Jesus preached?
One of the biggest surprises I learned from the film was something called "Dead Peasants Insurance." I actually had to google this one when the movie was over to see if it was really true. "Dead Peasants Insurance" is a life insurance policy that an employer buys for an employee (without their knowledge), so they can make money off your death. Wal Mart and Disney had such policies, and so do other major corporations like Bank of America and AT&T. The movie mentions a case of a woman who was married to a Wal Mart employee, a guy who died at 27 years old. Wal mart had a life insurance policy on the guy, and made an $87,000 profit on his death. His widow got absolutely nothing. Totally despicable.
I don't really agree with everything that Moore says. I don't think capitalism is evil. I have no problem with someone who creates a product that people want to buy, and becomes rich from it. That's the American way. If someone contacted me and said they wanted to give me a million dollars to publish my two blogs as a book, would I say no? Hell no. haha (yeah, I'm a dreamer). But you know what? If I were extremely wealthy, I would have no problem paying higher taxes to help my fellow man. For giving people universal healthcare, affordable housing, and a right to a good job. It's just too bad that there aren't enough people who share that opinion.
I know there are people out there, especially here in Texas, who hate Michael Moore. Hate, loathe, despise the guy. On Friday, I was reading a review of the movie while I was at work. One of my co-workers saw me reading it and said:
"Michael Moore is an idiot. I hate that guy." he said.
"Really? Why?" I asked him.
"The guy just lies about everything."
"What did he lie about?" I continue.
"That movie about Bush (Fahrenheit 9/11) was just full of lies." the guy says.
I probe a little more to try to get him to tell me what was a lie in "Fahrenheit 9/11" but I do my best not to provoke him. The last thing I want to do is get into an argument with an angry Texan at work. In the end, he can't tell me what was a lie because he can't remember.
I'll admit that Michael Moore sometimes does take things out of context. The hit piece he did on Charlton Heston in "Bowling For Columbine" was one example. The way the movie was edited made the guy seem like a heartless bastard. I still liked the movie, though, and thought it did bring up a lot of good points about America's obsession with guns.
Not being a fan of George W. Bush, of course I really liked "Fahrenheit 9/11." It just proved what most of us already knew, that Iraq was never really a threat to America, and our invasion of the country was mostly about oil and a personal vendetta that the Bush family had with Saddam Hussein.
Then he made "Sicko", about our faulty healthcare system, and another topic that hits me on a very personal level. Anyone who has read my blog know that I favor universal healthcare for everyone. The movie seemed to imply that Richard Nixon was the instigator of the decline of American healthcare, by approving of the creation of the first "HMO's", where healthcare now became "for profit."
Now, in his latest movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story", it's another Republican president who is being blamed for the destruction of our economy. And no, it's not George W. Bush. It's Ronald Reagan. Once Reagan was elected, he approved the de-regulation of the financial industry. Once there were no more regulations on what banks and financial institutions could do, they went wild. Fraud was everywhere. People where promised mortgages they could afford, only to have them raised again and again by greedy lenders.
Reagan also brought huge tax cuts to the wealthy. In the 1950's and 60's, everyone had health care, houses were affordable for everyone. A single income could take care of an entire family. I come from such a family. My father was an accountant. He didn't make a large salary, but it supported a family of five. FIVE. Could anyone do that now? Hell no. Christy and I would both have to work to even come close to the life my parents had. Why was it better then? Because the wealthiest people in the country paid 90% in taxes. Yep, 90%. It does seem like a lot, but it didn't prevent the rich from staying rich. They were still rich. They still had their opulent lifestyles. So the money they paid in taxes made life better for the entire country. Now it's become everyone for themselves. Survival of the fittest. Is this what they teach in church? Is this what Jesus preached?
One of the biggest surprises I learned from the film was something called "Dead Peasants Insurance." I actually had to google this one when the movie was over to see if it was really true. "Dead Peasants Insurance" is a life insurance policy that an employer buys for an employee (without their knowledge), so they can make money off your death. Wal Mart and Disney had such policies, and so do other major corporations like Bank of America and AT&T. The movie mentions a case of a woman who was married to a Wal Mart employee, a guy who died at 27 years old. Wal mart had a life insurance policy on the guy, and made an $87,000 profit on his death. His widow got absolutely nothing. Totally despicable.
I don't really agree with everything that Moore says. I don't think capitalism is evil. I have no problem with someone who creates a product that people want to buy, and becomes rich from it. That's the American way. If someone contacted me and said they wanted to give me a million dollars to publish my two blogs as a book, would I say no? Hell no. haha (yeah, I'm a dreamer). But you know what? If I were extremely wealthy, I would have no problem paying higher taxes to help my fellow man. For giving people universal healthcare, affordable housing, and a right to a good job. It's just too bad that there aren't enough people who share that opinion.
Someone had to try with the health thing. Health care has always been a profit making thing. But doctors used to care, even for patients who couldn't pay. Today they just let people die.
ReplyDeleteNixon though was a major component in improving the snake pits we called nursing homes back then. I was involved in the long term care ombudsman program in California back when the problems were really bad. Back then we dealt with abuse, hunger, and horrible conditions of neglect.
Today the big problems in the nursing homes still exist, but they are much more rare, and people are treated with a lot more dignity.
I agree with you, we need universal health care. We need affordable housing and everyone needs food and a roof over their heads.
Is capitalism really okay? I don't know. I like the fact that I can make a doll and sell it or not, as I please (if there's a buyer.) But I'm wondering if the weak links in capitalism are now causing the collapse of it.
It'll be interesting, and perhaps painful, to watch how it goes.
I have too many family members and friends out of work to think it's working very well right now.
Thanks for the post. I haven't seen Sicko or this movie yet but I do generally enjoy Moore moves. I just want to say I kind of disagree with you about the dead peasant policy. As long as Walmart isn't killing him than why does it matter? I am 28 and I have a life insurance policy on myself because if I die I know I want my wife to be taken care of. It was that mans responsibility to make sure he was properly insured not Walmarts. We really need to have some sort of financial education in high school because most people are under insured and have no idea.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans care most about making abortion illegal, lowering taxes and making the government smaller. Reagan is the Republican god because he got Congress to lower taxes. There was nothing he could do about abortion. Ironically, he made the federal government much bigger. Carter and Clinton reduced the government and they are routinely hated by Republicans. Reagan expanded it more than any previous president. Bush Jr made it even bigger.
ReplyDeleteWhen Reagan was deregulating everything he could get his hands on, some Democrats said it might be a bad idea if these corporations had no limits. When Kennedy said this, Republicans just shouted their Chappaquiddick mantra. Republicans say government should let corporations do whatever they want, but it is perfectly reasonable for that same government to regulate what we can do in our bedrooms. And most Washington sex scandals involve Republicans doing things they want to make illegal.
Back when the wealthiest Americans paid a much higher percentage in taxes, many of them simply kept as much money in offshore accounts as they could. They have always complained about paying taxes, but they can get out of it much easier than you ever will. Once they had to pay less, it was mostly the middle class that had to pay more. That is probably one of the biggest reasons a single average income will not buy that house with the picket fence and two cars in the garage anymore. Another is that it became much easier, and more cost effective, for corporations to screw over loyal employees once there were fewer regulations. Nobody retires with a gold watch after 40 years because most corporations will lay them off long before they reach retirement and replace them with someone cheaper. Or move the entire department to India.
Health insurance used to cost less because medical bills used to be lower because equipment and especially medicine used to cost less because drug companies were regulated and everyone was not suing everyone else to pay for outrageous medical bills. When company A finds a way to make a 600% profit instead of a 50% profit, company B charges company C more and it trickles down to the patient who cannot pass the extra costs on to anyone. All he can do is file for bankruptcy, which only costs the taxpayers more, giving them less money to pay their own medical bills.
Speaking of fucked up health care, one of my students is a confirmed case of H1N1. So some government medical types came to the school with lots of masks and some kind of futuristic thermometer that takes two hands to hold and makes an unusual buzzing noise. The logical and efficient thing to do would have been for them to go into every classroom and take each student's temperature in a calm and organized fashion. But they were Taiwanese so they wanted all the students to gather downstairs and do it with the most pandamonium possible. This is a small school and there is no space where all of the students will fit at the same time. So the genius health officials ordered all of the children outside.. In the street. At night. In Taiwan.
The entire operation should have taken no more than 30 minutes and disrupted each class for only a few. Doing it the Taiwan way took about two hours, eliminating entire class times. Most of the parents paid for their children to stand around and dodge scooters all night. I was paid to sit around (inside because I am not a complete idiot) and eat M&Ms all night.
And it was all paid for with our socialist taxes. If this were done in an American school there would have been more orderly chaos, but each parent would have gotten a bill for $500.
According to the super thermometer, no one had a fever.
B,
ReplyDeleteYou bought that life insurance policy yourself, and you're aware of it. What Wal Mart did was take out life insurance policies on employees without their knowledge. Then when the employee died, they cashed in and kept all the money themselves. Not a single dime went to any of the employees family members. Do you really like the idea of your employer profiting on your death?
And just the term "Dead Peasants Insurance" is offensive. I know it's just a name, but "peasant" has very negative connotations.
"Anonymous" is obviously a bleeding-heart liberal lunatic tree-hugging communist spendocrat. And a coward for posting anonymously.
ReplyDelete