Michael Moore’s 2009 documentary film Capitalism: A Love Story examines the late-2000s financial crisis and the recovery stimulus, while putting forward an indictment of unfettered capitalism in general.
Moore discusses his happy and prosperous early life and how capitalism enabled the U.S. to build dams, bridges, schools and hospitals. He describes President Jimmy Carter’s Crisis of Confidence speech as a turning point that led to the election of Ronald Reagan.
Moore looks back at his first film, Roger & Me, and then shows President George W. Bush enjoying his final year in office as companies announce massive layoffs and the economy starts to collapse. He asserts that capitalism allows people to get away with anything, including making a profit from someone’s death.
Moore speaks to Catholic priests and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who believe that capitalism is evil and contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.
Moore reports on the Occupy movement and the 2008 presidential campaign of Democratic Senator Barack Obama, who was demonized as a “socialist”.
The film ends with Moore marking Wall Street as a crime scene and calling for capitalism to be eliminated and replaced with something good for all people: Democracy. The ending of the film also features footage of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s last address to the nation before his death, where he called for America to incorporate a 2nd bill of economic rights to the American Constitution.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Franklin Delaney Roosevelt (January 11th 1944)
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; The right to a good education.”“
Below is Michael Moore’s film “Capitalism – A Love Story” by Dog Eat Dog Productions
