Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

This is capitalism, a system of taking and giving. ... Mostly taking. The only thing we didn't know wasd when the revolt will begin.

Twenty years after his influential debut, Roger & Me, Michael Moore returns to his roots by pulling back the curtain on capitalism to reveal the insidious role it has played in the destruction of the American dream for many people. Back in 1989, auto workers in Flint, MI, were lamenting layoffs and wondering how they would support their families without jobs to pay the bills, or benefits to ensure their health. Flash forward two decades, when cities all across the country are feeling the same pressures that Flint residents were back when GM left them high and dry. With an average of 14,000 U.S. jobs lost every day and taxpayer money constantly being pumped into failing financial institutions, the question must be asked: how long can this go on before the entire system collapses? Is there really any hope for Americans who are losing their homes to foreclosure and seeing their savings get wiped out at an unprecedented rate? In order to seek out an answer to this question and many more, Moore takes a trip to our nation's capitol, engaging average Americans in conversations about the prospect of repairing America's failing, debt-ridden economy along the way. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

You have to know that it will be a propaganda hit-piece when it starts off with bank robberies. It immediately goes down hill after that to confuse Roman Empire with the US. He obviously has no clue as to what Capitalism is, even if the word has lost all its meaning. A word promoted by its most vocal opponents of it like Karl Marx. This sums up how the critiques are basically looking at it wrong.
Indeed, it is probably no exaggeration to say that economics developed mainly as the outcome of the investigation and refutation of successive Utopian proposals – if by “Utopian” we mean proposals for the improvement of undesirable effects of the existing system, based upon a complete disregard of those forces which actually enabled it to work.
HT: Quotation of the Day… by Don Boudreaux


Interestingly, he has a clip of Ronald Reagan slapping a woman just as he introduces womens' liberation movement. No implications there, no, not at all...
Earnings
Earnings of aircraft pilots and flight engineers vary greatly depending whether they work as airline or commercial pilots. Earnings also depend on factors such as rank, seniority, and the size and type of aircraft flown. For example, pilots who fly jet aircraft usually earn higher salaries than pilots who fly turboprops. Airline pilots and flight engineers may earn extra pay for night and international flights. In May 2008, median annual wages of airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers were $111,680. The middle 50 percent earned between $81,580 and $150,480.
Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers
Salary Snapshot for Commercial Pilot Jobs

The links to pay scales of pilots is because he said that some pilots were getting food stamps and getting paid less than $20k per year. That I find impossible unless it is a pilot working less than 40 hours a month. Since he does not provide enough details, or at least leaves out relevant information, I am not sure how to verify his facts.

Anyway, it is hard to believe that one of the biggest entrepreneurial capitalist around has no idea (or shows no signs that he does) what capitalism is. A complete loser of a film based on faulty ideas of what he thinks capitalism is.

For extras, he includes longer segments of the respective interviews with the commentators.