Capitalism: A Love Story

Love him or hate him, Michael Moore has an uncanny knack of breaking down some of the big problems affecting the world today and feeding them to the general public in easy bite sized pieces so we can all understand what is going on and so we can all feel the appropriate level of anger and act accordingly.
I saw a bumper sticker back before Bush was re-elected that said 'If you're not angry, you're not paying attention.' I think that bumper sticker would still get a lot of use anywhere in the world today, Bush or no Bush.
The way I rate a Michael Moore documentary is by the levels of anger and hope I feel at the end of it. I left the cinema today with equal levels of each. Anger against mankind and the people who got the world into this financial mess. Hope for mankind and the people who are going to get us out of it.
Capitalism: A Love Story is a lot like Moore's other doco's with well placed songs, mixes of old-school tv ads, the odd celebrity, interviews and footage of people who have been failed by the system; families getting evicted from their homes, workers being laid off without pay after the company they so tirelessly worked for for years went belly up after someone in a suit made a poor business decision. A home is foreclosed in the U.S.A every 7.5 seconds. That is wrong. Anywhere in the world, that is wrong.
One part that really interested me was the 700 BILLION dollar bail out that the U.S Government took from the taxpayers and gave to the banks that were about to go under. Where did that money go? Not even the Chairperson of the committee that was supposed to oversee where that money went knows where it is!
Another thing, that heroic pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, who landed that plane in the middle of the Hudson River and saved every single life on board, he had his wage cut by 40% and no longer has access to his pension! How fucked up is that. Airplane pilots in the U.S earn about $17-20,000 per year. As Moore points out, you can earn more being the manager of a Taco Bell shop. That is pathetic. According to here an Australian pilot earns over $70,000. That sounds more like it. Most of the pilots Moore interviewed had second jobs. Not so good for the person who has your lives of a whole bunch of passengers in their hands!
Granted, Moore has his stunts and gimmicks that some people don't like, but hey, at least he's trying to educate us, there's no way we'd get this kind of information from our friendly neighbourhood bank manager or investment broker.
If you have a job, or a mortgage, or can simply breathe oxygen, you need to see this movie, in fact, any of Moore's documentaries. The only way we as a people can overcome any wrong doings in this world is to be educated. Ignorance is too easily defeated and frankly, no bloody excuse anymore. Knowledge is power, power to the people.
And by the way, if you can explain what a credit default swap or a derivative is, please let Michael Moore know : )