Capitalism: A Love Story. Part 1

The movie, “Capitalism: A Love Story” was a very interesting movie to me. Basically, Michael Moore put together a documentary addressing some concerns he finds with Capitalism in general. He goes in to some specific detail throughout the movie, a lot of which I found very compelling. I took a lot of notes while watching the movie, I can could probably write for hours on end, giving details of the movie and my reaction, but, I am going to keep it to a minimum, and to some of the things I REALLY found eye opening.

 

Moore starts the movie with am implied comparison of ancient Rome to our modern day society. He starts out by talking about the greatness of the ancient civilization as being a façade. He talks about some things wrong with Rome:

 

• The vast difference of the rich and the poor, and the growing rift between these two social classes. This is something we see modern day, considering places like Detroit, full of people having their homes foreclosed on everyday, in contrast to the $165 million in bonuses AIG planned on paying their executives after the Federal Bailout.
  
• Good jobs for the unskilled being hard to come by. Based on the experiences of friends and family, I have seen the struggle that some deal with when trying to find a job when unskilled. Jobs are harder and harder to come by everyday.
  
• The government originally set up as a perfect system to be run “By the people,” but eventually, the leaders becoming more and more powerful. In Roman time, the emperor took on more and more power, and in modern times, we can see this same trend when looking at the way the presidency and administrations have worked. Starting with Bush and now continuing with more and more government controlling more and more aspects of our lives.
  
• Distractions. In Roman times, chariot racing and eventually gladiator-style fighting were state sponsored. It was something to take the minds of the lamentation of the people. When I thought about this, I realized how entertained and distracted we all are with sports, movies, and celebrities in general. None of this is specifically state sponsored, but, I do remember Obama talking about a playoff system in the BCS. I know congress considered working on legislation for that too. And interesting comparison.

 

This was all in just the first few minutes of the movie. I really enjoyed it, and would suggest it to anyone to go and watch it.  It's still showing up in SLC, and before 6PM, it's only $5.50.

I plan on writing more about this, but, the above post is what I wrote tonight for my assignment for Ethics & Values.  I could write on and on, but, I'm not in the mood tonight.  This is a good start.

Really, go see the movie.