"As they passed the rows of houses they saw through the open doors that men were sweeping and dusting and washing dishes, while the women sat around in groups, gossiping and laughing.
"What has happened?" the Scarecrow asked a sad-looking man with a bushy beard, who wore an apron and was wheeling a baby-carriage along the sidewalk.
"Why, we've had a revolution, your Majesty -- as you ought to know very well," replied the man; "and since you went away the women have been running things to suit themselves. I'm glad you have decided to come back and restore order, for doing housework and minding the children is wearing out the strength of every man in the Emerald City."
"Hm!" said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully. "If it is such hard work as you say, how did the women manage it so easily?"
"I really do not know," replied the man, with a deep sigh. "Perhaps the women are made of cast-iron.""
- L. Frank Baum, "The Land of Oz"
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Michael Moore has made a movie that argues that capitalism is evil.
He is charging people to buy, distribute, and attend this movie.
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Comments on "Do As I Say, Not As I Do":
2. nhe
- 10/02/2009 7:56 am CDT
From what I understand, the guy gives a lot away and lives pretty modestly........if that's the case, I don't begrudge him making a living by doing what he loves to do. Even the aforementioned french director Luc Besson (from the previous thread) is free in a socialist country to do what he loves.
Moore is an unapologetic propagandist - he sees no double-standard even if he must use the system he rejects to get his message out.
That said, he's never received a nickel from me.
3. Scott
- 10/02/2009 8:54 am CDT
From what I understand he's not arguing that making money is evil, but that our current system where corporations have a significant amount of control/influence over the gov't and where CEO's make millions of dollars whether their companies succeed or fail is an evil/bad system. I can't say I disagree.
4. Scott
- 10/02/2009 9:01 am CDT
He explains it here http://www.hulu.com/watch/95827/the-jay-leno-show-michael-moore-part-1#s-p18-st-i1
6. Jared
- 10/02/2009 9:02 am CDT
Scott, I was going off of Entertainment Weekly's review of the movie. Entertainment Weekly's critics, not exactly known for conservative viewpoints, say that Moore's film deflates all it builds up b/c at the end he does either argue or insinuate that capitalism itself is an evil system.
7. Scott
- 10/02/2009 9:20 am CDT
Gotcha. So apparently he went too far with his premise (as apparently he often does). Either way I certainly agree that it makes his making money off of this ironic, but again pointing to the Leno interview he did arrange for free screenings in some of the cities hardest hit by our current economic situation.
8. Shrode
- 10/02/2009 10:32 am CDT
So I wonder what Michael Moore really thinks. Seriously. Does he think Socialism is better? Or just modified capitalism? And how would he modify it?
I'd really like to know what "positive solutions" he would propose. What would he say is a better alternative to what we have now?
I doubt that he has an answer.
10. Paul W.
- 10/02/2009 11:08 am CDT
I'm not a Moore fan, I've never seen any of his movies, but his reply to what the alternative was to capitalism is true democracy. His analogy was that if we look at the economy as a pie, the top one percent take eight pieces and leave one slice for ninety-five percent to fight over. The super rich have rigged the game, CEO's in the sixties made 44 times what the workers made, currently it's a 550 times more margin. I think there should be a higher tax for the super-rich, during the FDR administration I believe it was at ninety percent.
12. Evan
- 10/02/2009 11:48 am CDT
If that is Moore's alternative, he is really ignorant or has his own version of the English language where words only mean what he thinks they mean. For us normal people who accept standard definitions of words to understand each other, capitalism is an economic system whereas democracy is a political system. They are not alternatives to one another.
And to avoid going on a long rant, all I will say is that a few hundred big company CEO's making $10 million per year is about as important an economic issue as a few hundred professional athletes making similar money. They are little more than a mousefart in our economy and the least of our economic problems.
14. Paul W.
- 10/02/2009 12:33 pm CDT
The people elected Obama because he was going to change things. Where's the change? He wanted a one payer health care system, and out the gate he gave that up to appease the trillion dollar health care lobby, even though he has a democratic congress to work with. He was going to bring the troops home, but now he's requesting more troops for Afghanistan. Even with the democratic party controlling the white house and congress, the two biggest promises that were made still remain unchanged. Why? Do we honestly think that large corporations don't influence our democracy?
15. Paul W.
- 10/02/2009 2:01 pm CDT
I don't want to overtake the thread but it appears that I am. (Capitalist pig that I am)I have to admit, I drink the deregulation kool-aid believing that capitalism needed to be free to run it's coarse. Only we are greedy creatures, and we need to be saved from ourselves. Even God placed mandates in the Israelites economy to make sure the ones without a voice, were protected from over greedy folks. Capitalism is not an evil thing, but we are, we are greedy, and we need to have regulations to keep the playing field even. I liked McCain's platform of limited spending when it comes to elections, but I don't believe we will ever see that passed.
16. Sha
- 10/02/2009 4:00 pm CDT
I just thought I would clear up some facts.
Obama never endorsed nor campaigned on a single payer system for health care (although many on the left want and prefer that). Having a choice of a government option was what he always has endorsed. However, it looks like the public option is going to be a dead issue now and we may have something more like a government coop instead.
17. Paul W.
- 10/02/2009 4:33 pm CDT
Sha, I do believe he endorsed the single payer plan here a quote from an article from the Washington Post
“If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,” Obama told some 1,800 people at a town-hall style meeting on the economy.
Amy Chozick reports on the presidential race from Albuquerque, N.M.
18. Wickle
- 10/02/2009 9:26 pm CDT
"I drink the deregulation kool-aid believing that capitalism needed to be free to run it's coarse."
Yeah ... curious thing about that ... capitalism in real life requires some regulation. If capitalists weren't seduced by short-term gain (mortgage-backed securities), then there would still be an entire family of things known as "market failures." This is Econ 101 stuff that gets left out of most political rhetoric.
This, of course, is because most political rhetoric is dishonest.
19. Sha
- 10/03/2009 1:11 am CDT
Paul W ... exactly! He says "IF I were designing a system from scratch, I would go ahead with a single payer system." That would be his ideal (as it would with most other liberals as well), but that was never what he actively endorsed or campaigned on. He always spoke about having a "public option" instead. I think this probably is because he thinks it would be easier and more efficient to change the system we currently have (employer based), instead of scrapping it and starting it over with a new one(single payer).
The only reason I commented originally is because it seemed like your first post was implying that he pushed for this single payer system from the beginning (which he did not) and just pulled a "180" because of money interests. I just happen to disagree with that assumption is all.
20. Enkurio
- 10/03/2009 9:05 am CDT
The super rich have rigged the game, CEO's in the sixties made 44 times what the workers made, currently it's a 550 times more margin.
Ironically, it is the greed of CEO's, executives and the board of directors that keep a company going. If you didn't have the opportunity to make millions, why keep the company going? You would sell it off to the highest bidder, take your cut and retire. Why go through the struggle of keeping a corporation running and being "accountable to the shareholders" if you only made 500k a year.
What I disagree with though, is the million dollar payouts for failed executives. They shouldn't be payed anything for failing.
21. Paul W.
- 10/03/2009 10:05 am CDT
Enkurio, I totally agree that greed is the engine behind capitalism, everyone believes that they can eventually through hard work can become part of the one percent that takes the eight slices of pie. It's just that studies are showing that the separation between the super rich and the middle class is widening at unprecedented rate. In fact the middle class is falling backwards, we have seen the results of unregulated capitalism. I really don't know what the total message of Moore's film is, I think he's a whack job, but maybe there's a slice of truth to what he's saying.
Sha, you are correct Obama didn't campaign for a one payer health plan, but he did endorse the idea, it's what he truly wanted, only he knew it would never get by the lobbyist for the insurance companies.
22. Bob Sacamento
- 10/03/2009 3:33 pm CDT
Ironically, it is the greed of CEO's, executives and the board of directors that keep a company going. If you didn't have the opportunity to make millions, why keep the company going?
I'm pretty much a right wing, free-market guy too. But when I hear things like this, I part company with many of my more doctrinaire brethren. Having worked for Fortune 500 companies my whole adult life (never had the nerve to try my luck with a small company or a start-up) I have seen no end of idiocy come out of upper management of big corporations. I firmly believe that you could decapitate the entire Fortune 500 and it would all chug along pretty much as it always has. CEOs often make good figureheads; sometimes they ruin companies; they rarely if ever "keep them going." Companies like IBM are kept going by talented engineers, productive workers, and competent middle management. If I sound like a lefty, so be it. It's just the truth that I'm telling.
That said, I still don't want to see gov't regulation of executive salaries. For one thing, as Evan said above, these salaries don't amount to a hill of beans in the long view. And the people in Washington who raise their own salaries without consulting us don't have any business capping anybody else's salary.
23. Paul W.
- 10/03/2009 4:23 pm CDT
Bob, you don't sound like a lefty to me. It seems the good old boys network lays the ground rules for true conservatism. And if one doesn't march to the beat of their drum, your not a true conservative. Well if that's the case so be it, we have seen the results of the greed that deregulation has fostered. In a perfect world greed would not be a factor, but it's not a perfect world and someone needs to watch the wolves.
24. Susan B.
- 10/05/2009 9:28 pm CDT
Actually, Michael Moore does not live modestly. He has several luxurious homes. The one in Michigan is in an exclusive neighborhood on a lakefront. The anti-capitalist also has quite a stock portfolio.
I also remember that years ago he stiffed the contractors who where doing some work on his Manhattan home. Yep, he's really a friend of the workin' man.
Leave a Comment:
It is easy to criticize any system of human invention, because those involved are imperfect or even corrupt. Moore fits into a large group of stone throwers who also is laughing all the way to the bank. I am hoping that most people see him for what he is.