According to Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A love story film , capitalism is defined as a financial structure where production means, factors, trade, and industry is under the influence of private corporations whose aim is to amass huge profits in a given economy (Moore, 2009). That is, the economy is no longer under the control of the central government. This means the poor continue to be poorer while the wealthy continue to be wealthier. In the end, the income disparity gap continues to widen and affects both the economic and social aspects of the society. Moore employs both conventions as well as point of view to demonstrate how the vice of capitalism has taken root in the American economy. He tries to warn every individual that advocating for capitalism destroys the country’s economy due to financial sacrifices that the citizens make. On the other hand, he advocates for democracy where he cites that it is the only concept that can redeem the economy since it allows every person to enjoy the luxuries of middle-class life. Therefore, this paper elucidates on inequality as well as economic crisis as discussed in the film with an incorporation of why the banks were bailed out and the individuals behind the bailouts, the reason why people were getting kicked out of their homes, the president who merged corporations and the government, and whether the government should employ people who previously worked in corporations.
Inequality
The postindustrial world is experiencing an increase in both social and economic inequality. For instance, in terms of social disparity, Moore in his film Capitalism: A Love Story specifically targets and condemns the top one percent of the populace, the portion that possesses and controls ninety-five percent of America’s wealth (Moore, 2009). This fragment of the society of ‘who-is-who’ is making American-style capitalism worse due to the creation of citizenry segments.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Moreover, as Moore demonstrates, the workers are victims of wage disparity. They receive low wages as well as substandard treatment. While the average worker is receiving peanut salary, the bigwigs receive wages that are almost six hundred times more than the average worker’s salary. Moore explores this mistreatment through looking into the occupation of the airline pilots where he discovers that a portion of the pilots earn less than a manager at Taco Bell as well as take home less than bus drivers. The revelation is surprising by the fact that the pilots are overworked as well get underpaid for the job they do. Additionally, due to the continued safety cuts, the job becomes more risky, a factor that does not reflect in their salaries (Moore, 2009) .
Furthermore, Moore’s elucidates on the way people focus on blaming the pilot on a shoddy job when a plane goes down rather than focusing on how the economy fails to pay the pilot adequately. Thus, due to the process of capitalism, the worker is no longer an independent entity. Rather, like the pilot, the workers are becoming part of the production process.
Economic crisis
Moore’s documentary employs the use of greed, exploitation and scams interchangeably by corporations to explore the concept of capitalism and its role in the country’s economic crisis. According to the film, due to the economic meltdown, the seven hundred billion dollars bailout was orchestrated by the major corporations as a form of “recovery stimulus” for the favoured corporations. Despite being rejected at first, more pressure was subjected, and Congress adopted the Act. Other than the “recovery stimulus,” cutting of financial regulations boosted refinancing to access home equity which became the foundation of bank managers disbursing of loans easily with very little or no down payments, homeowners purchasing houses they cannot afford, and Wall Street creating clever novel economic mechanisms, for example, credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities (Moore, 2009). In the end, corporation’s profit margins increased at a skyrocketing rate while the populace struggled to keep up with servicing of loans as well as housing mortgage. When the populace would not keep up with servicing their loans as well as mortgage, most defaulted their loans and faced foreclosure. What followed is banks incapability of selling the foreclosed houses as well as accessing loans to continue running smoothly thus resulting in a major domestic as well as global financial crisis.
Why former corporate ‘bigwigs’ should not be allowed to sit in public office
Individuals who have held influential positions in corporations before their government employment should not be allowed to sit in public offices. They are bound to use their positions in the government to crusade for motions that fit their objectives and that of their corporations. For example, during the bailout negotiations, all the Treasury Department members involved were former executives of Goldman Sachs. This can be attributed to the fact that the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a Goldman Sachs ex-CEO. According to the documentary, the Goldman Sachs executives utilised the bailout funds to save Goldman and other privileged corporations (Moore, 2009) . He elucidates that after the initial rejection of the bailout by Congress on 29 th September 2008, the Congress was pressured and another vote was scheduled on October 3 rd . Surprisingly, the same bailout rejected before was passed. When Moore inquired from the Chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Panel Elizabeth Warren of the whereabouts of the bailout funds, she informs Moore of the banks and the Treasury following ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ guiding principle. When he tries to get clarification from Paulson’s office, the secretary hangs up on him.
Conclusion
Like a cancer cell that destroys living organisms through duplication and reaping off the energy of a corpse, a nation that encourages capitalism allows organisations to accrue assets at the cost of the hardworking citizens’ possessions. Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A love story film tackles several issues such as inequality and economic crisis. Moore explores both social and wage inequality between the one percent wealthy individuals and the ninety-nine percent struggling population. Similarly, Moore clarifies the major drivers of the economic crisis the country faced with emphasis on three major concepts which are greed, exploitation, and scams. All these occurred during President Bush’ regime who merged the government with the corporation as portrayed by the Treasury Department members headed by the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Goldman Sachs ex-CEO and other former Goldman Sachs executives. The impact of such a union between corporations and the government is crusading for motions that fit their objectives and that of their corporations.
References
Moore, M. (2009). Capitalism: A Love Story [Video]. Retrieved from http://watchdocumentaries.com/capitalism-a-love-story/
