Capitalism: A Love Story: User Reviews

Capitalism - A Love Story in many ways is a tragedy! It is a tragedy of how greed creates wealth for a few while many ordinary people end up struggling and suffering - including in countries and communities around the world directed by American economic priorities.

Capitalism influences and creates not only "domestic policies" in the United States, but also "foreign policies". One can track the movement and growth of capitalism in the US to a few companies, few financial institutions...even a few people on the council of foreign relations.

This movie also shows how Wall Street played the numbers game, and how ordinary Americans bought into the hype and propaganda because of their own "love with capitalism" - many hoping they too would have that mega-wealth and glamorous life one day! This is American economic model meets American popular culture that people do not wake up to - until it becomes personal and bites!

I like the fact that beyond the social and economic critique, which has been done well by many analysts and scholars here and abroad, Michael Moore shows an alternative model of "community ownership and production that works".

We also see in this film how some old guards within the Democratic elites are complicit in their negligence of white color crimes, and have even colluded with some Wall Street and corporate crooks and manipulators.

We also see the insidious ways in which corporations operate to deceive, exploit and manipulate people and their lives (not just their production). The stories on how companies buy life insurance on sick employees to collect money later is shocking and scary. One wonders if these companies are in some way contributing to "the slow or fast death of their sick employees" (many with cancer). Were they paying bad doctors to treat these patients, or only allowing certain kinds of treatment to, in some ways, to help hasten the death of sick employees just to collect their insurance money? No one should have to think that way about one's employer - but this movie shows a system that has gone so berserk that many might see connections and conspiracies where at first there were none!

Michael shows how we live in a country of "absurdities, craziness, crookedness, corporate mobs and extremes" that has become so normalized and acculturated that we don't even notice it - let alone think about it!

How did variety, choice and freedom become so corrupted? How did America become the definition for "ugly or bad capitalism"? How did capitalism itself get thrown into bad light? Or, was it always so? Mercantilism, colonialism, capitalism, corporatism and now Americanism are all linked in Michael's movie - as some social scientists have done in the past.

Though the movie is much more activist than a traditional documentary, and some facts are missing or poorly researched, this is a movie I highly recommend - even for economists, sociologists and social workers with a PhD. Good job Mike! MS

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Moore is masterful in the art of explaining the almost inexplicable, but 20 years after 'Roger and Me,' it is depressing that short-sighted corporate greed has done so much more damage to the world.

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Michael Moore's latest movie is a look at the social consequences of the greed, excess and hubris of the American capitalist elites, with most of the deserved attention going toward the scum-bag upper-managements of the major banks and financial corporations.

But this is not a detached "examination" of what went wrong--it is a moral condemnation of capitalism, and our passive acceptance of it. And Moore tells its from the perspective of ordinary people.

But he also shows how we are not freely-governed people: we are subject to the whims, and the lobbying of big business which owns the US Senate and House of Representatives. Moore goes after the Republicans, for good reason, but he also goes after the Dems, too, who also are complicit, when not actively involved. Not for nothing does he call refer to Government Sachs, since so many top level people in particularly the Clinton and Bush II Administrations (including Treasury Secretaries) come from the same investment bank, Goldman Sachs. (Some wonder why GS is about the only major winner coming out of the current financial crisis--but Moore is certain "it's only a coincidence.")

But there are some good folks included. He gets Ohio Representative Marcy Kaptur on film, and Kaptur speaks about what's really going on from the inside--she calls the banking bailout, correctly, a "financial coup d'etat." He also has her speaking on the floor of the House telling people not to abandon their homes if they get foreclosed: stand and fight the bastards!

I think people might be surprised by the moral condemnation of capitalism by a number of Catholic priests included in the film. (Moore is a Catholic, from clearly the "social justice" perspective.)

But this IS needed: wait til you see about the "dead peasants" insurance, where companies take life insurance policies out on employees and then profit when the employees' die: it just reaffirms your faith in humanity--not.

Moore takes his humorous shots--I loved him going back and trying to get into General Motors 20 years after his earlier efforts in "Roger and Me." And his efforts to recover the money from the bank bailouts make a strong point.

Moore wants people to get off their butts and to start raising hell about what's going on. He wants us to recognize the whole system is corrupt. Whether people get off their butts or not, it won't be because Moore didn't try. But Moore's limitation is trying to stimulate individual responses, when the situation clearly demands organized, collective responses. Still, his uncompromising attitude will hopefully build on and stimulate collective efforts.

A very nice touch is at the end of the movie--stay til the very end. He includes (subtly) a big-band version of "The Internationale," and follows with Merl Haggard singing Woody Guthrie's "And They Laid Jesus Christ in his Grave." I guess the Okie's no longer from Muskogee!

A MUST-SEE--and best seen with tons of friends. Don't wait

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