Michael Moore explains the major flaw in capitalism

[Ron Burgundy]

The last scene in a documentary called The Corporation is a clip from an interview with Moore. It's a socialist propaganda film about how private for-profit groups are inherently evil, corrupt, and detrimental to the environment and everyone on Earth. And we need to rise up and convince the government to step in and save us from them.



[ QUOTE ]
I've often thought it's very ironic that I'm able to do all this, and yet what am I on? I'm on networks, I'm distributed by studios that are owned by large corporate entities. Why would they put me out there when I'm opposed to everything they stand for? I spend my time on their dime opposing what they believe in. Well, it's because they don't believe in anything. They put me out there because they know there's millions of people that want to see my films, so they're gonna make money. I've been able to get my stuff out there because I'm driving a truck through this incredible flaw in capitalism: the greed flaw. The thing that says the rich man will sell you a rope to hang himself if he thinks he can make a buck off of it. Well I'm the rope, or at least I'm part of it.

They also believe that when people watch my films they won't do anything. They think because they've done such a good job of dumbing them down, they'll never affect anything. People aren't going to get off the couch and do something political. I'm convinced of the opposite, I'm convinced people will get up and do something to get this world back in our hands.

[/ QUOTE ]


So according to Moore, the big flaw in capitalism is that producers are highly motivated to give consumers what they demand. I guess in a perfect world, the government decides what consumers want.

[Ron Burgundy]

To watch the entire documentary, go here. Click Business > N-Z > The Corporation.

[Nielsio]

Voluntary, peaceful, mutually beneficial trade = greed.

Involuntary, violent, parasitic theft and extortion = compassion.

[MrMon]

What Moore has picked up on is not a flaw in capitalism, it's an inherent product of American democracy known as political tolerance. If he sees that as a flaw, then I detect more than a whiff of totalitarianism in his thinking - for if he obtains power, he obviously won't be so tolerant to ideas opposed to his own. He probably thinks Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro are role models.

[Case Closed]

[ QUOTE ]
To watch the entire documentary, go here. Click Business > N-Z > The Corporation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I am going to pass.

WRT Michael Moore is so full of himself it is unreal. This guy is doing nothing for the progressive movement. The fact that I went to a Green Party convention and there was a good portion of the crowd who that he was a useless [censored] was quite interesting. One would assume a group like that would eat up his drivel with a spoon, but I guess everyone grows up at some point and realizes the easter bunny does not exist and that Michael Moore is a lier.

[pokerbobo]

[ QUOTE ]
To watch the entire documentary, go here. Click Business > N-Z > The Corporation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would rather gouge out my eyes with rusty icepick than to watch that [censored] 4 brains idiot.

[mosdef]

Interestingly, some of his observations here are good.

1. It is ironic that his anti-big business message is spread by big businesses.

2. He is also probably right that big business is aware of the potential damage that his message could do to them. He is also probably right that big businesses decide that Moore's movies won't actually change peoples' behaviour enough to introduce a cost to them larger than the benefit they get by selling his shows.

Where he loses himself is where he concludes that "big business is too stupid to realize how they're hurting themselves by selling his shows". On the contrary, I think that the evidence (i.e. corporate profits) shows that they big businesses are right in their assumptions about cost and benefits to them. If Moore was right, the companies would either suppress his message or collapse. The fact that they don't suggests that Moore is simply wrong.

[tolbiny]

[ QUOTE ]

Interestingly, some of his observations here are good.

1. It is ironic that his anti-big business message is spread by big businesses.

2. He is also probably right that big business is aware of the potential damage that his message could do to them. He is also probably right that big businesses decide that Moore's movies won't actually change peoples' behaviour enough to introduce a cost to them larger than the benefit they get by selling his shows.

Where he loses himself is where he concludes that "big business is too stupid to realize how they're hurting themselves by selling his shows". On the contrary, I think that the evidence (i.e. corporate profits) shows that they big businesses are right in their assumptions about cost and benefits to them. If Moore was right, the companies would either suppress his message or collapse. The fact that they don't suggests that Moore is simply wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

Moore is wrong on a much more fundamental level than this. The "big businesses" that he complains about, insurance companies, big media corporations ect, have benefited from government regulations for years. The irony here is the Moore is proposing a larger version of the very same system that built the massive companies and allowed them to screw the consumer in the ways that they did by preventing competition. These mass giants know which side the butter is on, and the more people screaming for government control the better as long as it falls short of a fully socialized society.

[Vagos]

[ QUOTE ]
1. It is ironic that his anti-big business message is spread by big businesses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Also ironic that he preaches equality and the common good, while swimming in his vault of coins ala Scrooge McDuck. I've never heard his name mentioned in any kind of charity or fundraising event for a good cause, that wasn't tied to the promotion of his movies. He lives a lavish life and the only thing he gives back to "society" is his [censored] films which coincidently, benefit him more than any other individual on the planet.

Damn those greedy capitalists!

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1. It is ironic that his anti-big business message is spread by big businesses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Also ironic that he preaches equality and the common good, while swimming in his vault of coins ala Scrooge McDuck. I've never heard his name mentioned in any kind of charity or fundraising event for a good cause, that wasn't tied to the promotion of his movies. He lives a lavish life and the only thing he gives back to "society" is his [censored] films which coincidently, benefit him more than any other individual on the planet.

Damn those greedy capitalists!

[/ QUOTE ]

So much to comment on. Just because someone doesn't wear their charitable donations on a placard wherever they go doesn't mean that they don't donate. 60% of the net proceeds of Fahrenheit 9/11 went to charity.

What gives you the impression that Moore lives some lavish lifestyle??? He doesn't claim that wealth is bad nor that one shouldn't be compensated for their hard work (as you suggest.)

Somehow conservatives see hypocrisy when someone wealthy advocates for the downtrodden (apparently we want only the weak, poor and powerless to advocate for the poor as that will be so much more effective) failing to distinguish between arguments against abuse of the poor and honorable accumulation of wealth.