Comments on: Capitalism A Love Story

By: Featheriver

Featheriver — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:17:36 +0000

Hi Dewayne. I also thought Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story was one of his best. I had not heard of the “Dead Peasant” insurance phenomenon before either. I found it appalling as well.

Economic systems are over my head. Each such system seems to have pros and cons. The Corporate control of our government has been rather obvious for some time now. Pressure on corporations by Wall Street for continued increasing of profits has been highlighted by Wendell Potter during the current health care reform struggle.

The centralization of wealth in the hands of very few, 1% of the population has more wealth than 95%, pointed out by Moore, is a prime reason, it seems to me, for most, if not all, the economic distress we are enduring currently. It always makes me think of the French Revolution of the peasants against their aristocracy.

I don’t know how all this is going to finally shake out but something will give way ultimately. But not in my lifetime.

By: Dwayne Chesnut

Dwayne Chesnut — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:34:28 +0000

My wife and I saw Capitalism Monday, along with a friend, and we all felt it was Moore’s best film so far. I was also appalled by the “Dead Peasant” insurance, which I had not heard of before. I suspect it must have developed from the idea of “Key Employee” insurance, often used by small entrepreneurial corporations to allow time to replace key people who died.

If you didn’t stay for the credits you missed hearing Woody Guthrie’s song, Jesus Christ, which fits very well with the message of the movie. You can hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDS00Pnhkqk

I have been thinking about our economic system for a long time, and have difficulty formulating a way to improve things. One thing that capitalism does well is to provide a mechanism for rewarding deferred consumption, which is a vital function. Without it there would be little or no incentive to invest time and money in specialized training or education, planting orchards or even annual crops, research to find new medical treatments, etc. So, at the individual proprietorship level, capitalism works pretty well. I have concluded that corporations are the real source of the increasingly lopsided distribution of wealth and income — if true, we should be rebelling against corporatism instead of capitalism. Part of the problem we have with corporations is that they are essentially immortal citizens, having been granted the rights of citizens in the U.S. in a Supreme Court decision more than 100 years ago. No wonder they can concentrate wealth so well! They have replaced the aristocracy because they have a multi-generational time horizon. Bottom line: we have become a fascist country, where the corporations have almost total control of our government.

By: Featheriver

Featheriver — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:06:53 +0000

You may well be right Frank. The French revolution was all about oppression by the aristocracy of the French peasants. Greed is a powerful motivator.

By: Frank Hutchens

Frank Hutchens — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:01:18 +0000

At some point in time maybe the word capitalist will have a very negative connotation like the capitalists have managed to give to the words communists and socialists. Whenever the divide between rich and poor becomes too great revolution is the result. Capitalists owe it to their own survival to share. Instead they say, “Let them eat cake,” and end up running around looking for their heads.

By: Featheriver

Featheriver — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:47:04 +0000

I agree with you Marion. I admire Michael Moore and his guts in bring stuff like this to light. Sure doesn’t speak well for the economic system of capitalism. Your thought of boycotting Wal-Mart is a good one. There is a long list of corporations doing it, according to the movie. I intend to see if I can find the full list and publish the list asking people to boycott all corporations that do such a thing. Money and profits is one thing, but exploiting people in this manner is atrocious. And we’re supposed to be a Christian nation!

By: Featheriver

Featheriver — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:41:40 +0000

Thank you Marge for the comment. Frankly, I was somewhat shocked when I saw that segment of the Capitalism: A Love Story. I had never heard of nor thought of companies buying life insurance on the lives of their employees then cashing in on the policies when the employee dies. I don’t hold corporations in very high regard to begin with, but such things as that really sours me. It should be made illegal. Doesn’t speak well for our capitalistic society either.

By: Marion Forrest

Marion Forrest — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:44:17 +0000

I was proud of the people that are in the House and Senate
that stood up and spoke the truth. I’m proud of the workers that wouldn’t leave the factory, the neighbors that supported the family that lost their home.
I want to start a boycott of Walmart and ask that they share the million + insurance that they made when an employee died and they collected on a death insurance policy while his widow and 2 children lost their father. The husband that lost his wife and his children lost their mother
but Walmart made out like a bandit, boy, that must make the employee’s feel real good about the way Walmart exploits them. I want to support these people, What can we do, can we picket, sign petition sheets asking Walmart to donate a fair share to these families that have lost a loved one, how do these young children feel about the company that their parents worked for and getting rich on the dead peasants, I can’t comprehend that. Let them all share the insurance money with the families that lost their loved ones. I, for one won’t shop there again until they do something decent for the families they exploited. This is a disgrace, it is a pitiful commentary of what they think of the employee’s they call family.
Thank you Michael for having the courage to bring these things to our attention, it gives me strength and I want to help get this country back to where, we the people are treated equal, a country for the people by the people.
Your next film I hope will be about the change that was brought about by the people that saw your film and have band together to bring about change, that would be a Love Story for sure.
All the best.

By: Margie Johnson

Margie Johnson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:27:36 +0000

Jack, I bet investment/financial institutions everywhere do the same thing as Bank of America and Wal*Mart when it comes to selling insurance. It seems all of the investment institutions I’ve dealt with want to sell me some sort of life insurance. However, I always have had the privilege of naming my own beneficiary and would know about the insurance policy. Too bad Harold didn’t know the best way to rob a bank is to own one. Had to throw that in after reading your Michael Moore segment. By the way, I used the same method to go to your blog as usual. Take care and God bless.