Capitalism: A Love Story

Prior to leaving for Morocco, my time was stretched thin and I wasn't afforded the opportunity of heading to the Mayan to view Michael Moore's latest installment. I can think of few documentarians who have ascended to Moore's prominence and polarizing nature. I grew up in a household that valued his mix of satire and gripping portrayals of Americans wronged by social inequities. From TV Nation to Canadian Bacon, I grew up around his films, shows, books, and speaking. (OK, Canadian Bacon happened, by random, to be shown on Comedy Central.) Capitalism doesn't deliver on a variety of fronts.

I'm familiar with the Moore template of campy footage of those halcyon days of the past--imagined and actual--juxtaposed to today's perfidy and error, and the subject matter usually runs along the same lines. Capitalism seemed looser and confuses meaning and intention. Is one to walk away from this with the closing argument that capitalism is unremittingly evil, thus calling for the institution of a new economic system? When the final message is, verbatim, "capitalism is evil," what is the desired outcome for a viewer? I'll return to that question at the end. Another point, Moore's films balance humor and critique. This time around, outside of a Cleveland video not of his making, it was flat and there was a paucity of jokes (dead pan or cheap) from the bespectacled, ballcapped, heavy set chap from Michigan. Of course, there's nothing funny about a massive capitalist economic failure, one could retort. Certainly true. Still, he discovered ways to lace the other films with humor.

For me, it started off oddly with commentary from Wallace Shawn. Who, you might ask? This fella from everyone's favorite 80s film (but not mine):

In fairness to Shawn, he apparently graduated from Harvard with a degree in history and had designs for a career in economics after studying at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. A BA approximately forty years ago doesn't entitle one to postulate as a qualified expert. There are a litany of academic economists who could have explicated our current economic failure and capitalism's flaws: Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, Simon Johnson, James Galbraith, Robert Shiller, to name a few. Instead you have Vizzini the Sicilian? His use of Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, was one of the bright spots in the film.

Capitalism tours the scorched landscape left after America's economic fortunes soured and, correctly, before when workers' wages failed to grow. In typical Moore fashion, those watching are treated to disturbing scenes of greed with families tossed out of homes, Dead Peasant insurance scams, and how little people (ie, the majority of Americans) suffer under capitalism's negative ramifications that benefited a fraction of our fellow citizens. I was heartened to see footage from the victorious Chicago Republic Windows and Doors sit down strike and residents retaking a foreclosed home before Moore launched into his theatrics that, to me, was a tired shtick even thought it worked in the past.

Near the end, viewers are treated to a previously unseen clip of President Franklin Roosevelt enunciating his proposal for a Second Bill of Rights before cameras. Moore neglects to mention that had Roosevelt lived, he would have faced the same culture of post-war conservatism that led to Taft-Hartley and opposed Harry Truman's Fair Deal.

He concludes with the resounding charge "capitalism is evil." By blurring the lines of capitalism's inherent villainy, Capitalism elides the past accomplishments of the post-war economic growth that generated a thriving middle class of a sort largely unseen in history. What should have been said, and will be lost on those who aren't familiar with the Cold War era, is regulated capitalism opens the door for opportunity and the implementation of neoliberalism led us to this teetering state of today. I can already hear the derisive, back handed "corporatist" attacks. Regardless, it was a disappointing way to wrap up the movie when he could have adopted a moderate stance that could return us to the prosperity of his youth. As a document of sorts, it's a product of the bubbling energy following Obama's electoral victory, and has yet to confront the realities of lowered expectations. The next few months will reveal the administration's and Senator Christopher Dodd's commitment to safeguarding the economy and finance capital's from its own devices that landed us in this current mess. Hey, at least no one is consulting Robert Rubin.