Capitalism: A Love Story

The movie opens with images from bank surveillance tapes depicting common cries. The parallel is meant to be obvious as more and more homes are foreclosed by those same banks. This is Moore's next point of interest as he zeroes in on a family being evicted from their long time North Carolina home. As the film begins to take shape, Moore describes capitalism as a system of, "taking and giving, mostly taking."

                 Foreclosures seem to be the running theme of the film, until we're introduced to a widow whose husband was insured by his bank without either having been notified of the life insurance policy. This policy is sickeningly known as "dead peasant insurance" and in this case earned the bank millions after he died. After seeing this portion of the film, I was outraged. How could we let this happen? It would be like me putting a life insurance policy on my husband without notifying him beforehand, and that certainly isn't legal.

                The film, for the most part, left me feeling hopeless. How can I live in a country that seems to betray me at every turn? Is there any strength of the common people left, or are we all bound to become slaves to greed, heaving the bricks of corporate injustice on our backs? I was given a small amount of hope in what we the people could still accomplish when the film moved to a scene featuring the sit-in of the 250 workers laid off from Chicago's Republic Windows and doors. These workers staged a six-day sit-in at the plant, infuriated by sudden layoffs. Lo and behold it paid off, making it the single victory of the little people, us, through the entire film.

                Now, Michael Moore may not always represent a completely factual representation of events in this country, but as far as this film goes, I'd have to say his research seemed credible to me. I see it every day. On the news when we hear about yet another rise in unemployment rates; in the lives of the people I love when they can't afford gas to get to the job that they're trying to hang on to; in the foreclosure signs that now seem to be double the number of houses that are actually occupied. I thought that I had seen everything, until an old, familiar face graced the screen.

                It nearly brought tears to my eyes when Moore brought out, in my opinion America's finest President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. In a clip from the last State of the Union address he would ever give, Roosevelt spoke of a new bill of rights, one that would ensure economic as well as political fairness for every American citizen. This bill of rights included such things as: the right to earn enough to provide adequate food, clothing and recreation; 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 good health; the right to a good education, and then some.

                I wish his dream could have been realized. So that Capitalism could be something that I could be proud of, and something that we as a country could all share justly and fairly. So that the love story could have a happy ending.