I Think He Means Michael Moore Was Right

[lame54]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism:_A_Love_Story
Capitalism: A Love Story is a 2009 American documentary film directed, written by and starring Michael Moore. The film centers on the late-2000s financial crisis and the recovery stimulus, while putting forward an indictment of the current economic order in the United States and capitalism in general. Topics covered include Wall Street's "casino mentality", for-profit prisons, Goldman Sachs' influence in Washington, D.C., the poverty-level wages of many workers, the large wave of home foreclosures, corporate-owned life insurance, and the consequences of "runaway greed". The film also features a religious component where Moore examines whether or not capitalism is a sin and if Jesus would be a capitalist, in order to shine light on the ideological contradictions among evangelical conservatives who support free market ideals.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/13/occupy-right-capitalism-failed-world-french-economist-thomas-piketty?CMP=fb_gu

Occupy was right: capitalism has failed the world
Professor Andrew Hussey

One of the slogans of the 2011 Occupy protests was 'capitalism isn't working'. Now, in an epic, groundbreaking new book, French economist Thomas Piketty explains why they're right

...More to the point, he demonstrates that there is no reason to believe that capitalism can ever solve the problem of inequality, which he insists is getting worse rather than better. From the banking crisis of 2008 to the Occupy movement of 2011, this much has been intuited by ordinary people. The singular significance of his book is that it proves "scientifically" that this intuition is correct. This is why his book has crossed over into the mainstream – it says what many people have already been thinking.

[lame54]

1. .

[WillyT]

2. Just Ask Milanovic And Krugman...

In a review last year, World Bank economist Branko Milanovic wrote that “we are in the presence of one of the watershed books in economic thinking.” In March, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote that Piketty’s 685-page tome “will be the most important economics book of the year—and maybe of the decade.”

From: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024813345



& Rec !!!

[Bandit]

3. It is all going to "trickle down" to us peons any day now..

I know this to be true because Republicans have been telling us this for over thirty years now...They would NEVER LIE to us about something like this...

[onecaliberal]

4. Yes, on the second Tuesday of next week.

[lame54]

5. They've been trickling on us for years...

you just can't spend it

[AndyTiedye]

6. When there's a Trickle Down It Usually Means the Toilet Upstairs is Overflowing

[Whisp]

7. summary script of Columbine: Lots here too:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ryahnke/filmteach/My-Archive-of-Film-Notes/bowling-columbine-VIEW.htm

CHAPTER 27:WELFARE TO WORK

40. Cut to the little boy’s mother entering the courtroom. Moore’s voice-over: In order to get food stamps and health care for her children (close-up, slow motion, of the mother), she was forced to work as part of the state of Michigan’s welfare to work program. This program was so successful at tossing poor people off welfare that its founder, Gerald Miller, was hired by the number one firm in the country that states turn to privatize their welfare systems. That firm was Lockheed Martin. (Now Moore’s story seems to have come full circle—from Lockheed in Columbine to Lockheed affecting Flint.) Lockheed had found the perfect way to diversify, the perfect way to profit from people’s fear—from an enemy much closer to home—poor black mothers—like Tamarla Owens (close-up of the mother in the courtroom. She is crying.)

41. Cut to a well-dressed man sitting behind his desk. He complains about a program that sends single-mothers 60 miles one way to work. “How does that help a community?” He scoffs at this kind of system. And he is the sheriff of Flint, Michigan! “I wish I could put two parents in every home, and make them equally responsible—but you can’t do that!” Cut to a bus that is driving through streets early in the morning. Moore’s voice-over: This is the bus she was forced to ride every morning in order to work off the welfare money the state had given her. She and many others from Flint who were poor would make the 80-mile round trip journey every day from Flint to Auburn Hills. (Cut to the beautiful suburban hones with big lawns.) She would leave early in the morning and return late at night—rarely seeing her young children. Back to the sheriff: “What’s the point in doing that? Where does the state benefit? Where does Flint benefit from that? I think that may be part of the problem! We drove the one parent out!” Back to the bus we go—and Moore interviews two of the riders. One man has been riding the bus for three years. “Half my neighborhood works out here in the mall.” He gets $3 more per hour. That’s why he spends the time in traveling to and fro on the bus. Did he know the mother? “She was a nice lady. She came to work every day. She worked two jobs. She was trying to make ends meet.”

42. Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Grill in a big mall in Oakland Hills. That’s where the mother worked (and a second job in the fudge shop). Moore’s voice-over explains who Dick Clark is—and then Moore sneaks in a low blow by slipping in a photograph of Clark with Bob Hope and Charlton Heston. One of the employees of the Grill refers to Clark’s trademark line: “Music is the soundtrack of your life.” Moore notes in voice-over that Clark applied for special tax breaks by hiring welfare-to-work clientele. Moore’s voice-over: Even though the mother worked up to 70 hours a week at these two jobs, she did not earn enough to pay her rent, and one week before the shooting was told by her landlord that he was evicting her. She asked her brother if he could take her in for a few weeks. It was there her son found a small .32 caliber gun and took it to school. His mother did not see him take the gun because she was on a bus to go serve drinks and make fudge for rich people.

43. Shot of the palm trees and wide avenues of Los Angeles. Moore’s voice-over: I decided to fly out to California to ask Dick Clark what he thought about a system that forces single mothers to work two low-wage jobs to survive. Cut to an awkward shot, the camera behind Moore, as he leans on the van where Dick Clark is safely huddled inside. Moore tries to explain the context of his documentary, and he mentions the six-year-old that shot a six-year-old. “Get in the car, Dave!” Clark yells at his associate, standing off camera to the left. “We’re really late.” Moore keeps talking. “But the mother of the kid works at Dick Clark’s Grill—” and Clark cuts him off. “Forget it. Close the door!” “These people are forced to work—Dick—I want you to help me convince the Governor of Michigan— ” But Clark yells, “Come on! We’re going!” and the woman next to him in the backseat slides the van door closed. Moore continues, “—that the welfare-to-work—these women are forced to work.” The van drives off. “They’ve got kids at home. Dick! Ah, Jeez!” as he turns around.

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The very rich got taxpayers to help pay for the working poor's wages. What a crock - no wonder Ryan and The Foamy One think Clinton's Welfare Reform was great!