American Identity In Michael Moore’s Film Capitalism: A Love Story

In a gallant socialist parlance, Michael Moore in his film “capitalism: a love story”, unveils the true face of capitalism. An exploitative system wherein greedy bankers and CEOs act as vultures striving to get advantage from the working-class hurdles and vulnerability to maximize their profits. It is important to note, moreover, that the ideology and values of this system, with the profit motive and competition at its very core, have become synonymous with the American identity and propagated as being compatible with the law of God.

Moore shows that under the Regan years, Regan presided over one of the biggest redistributions of wealth in America’s history. Federal regulations got unenforced, the tax rate was cut, poor and middle-class salaries have decreased and social services were slashed while corporate profit got skyrocketed, thus widening the gap between the rich and the poor. This was primarily done in service of the capitalist republican notion that if individuals and corporations maximize their own greed with no rules or taxes to impede them, the free market which is supposedly the capitalist version of god will dispense freedom justice and wealth to all. While the truth was that capitalism can never equate with democracy nor can it equate with social justice or dignity, the American government was very clever in propagating the American dream. It was a fallacy that made the working class believe that they might actually have a chance to descend by working hard and by making the wealthy grow wealthier.

Capitalism negative aspect or as Moore call it “evil” manifests itself in images of people being evicted from their homes and a little-known practice yet common in corporate America of how Companies like Walmart are taking out the so-called “death peasant insurance” on their employees, and collecting the benefits upon their death. The phenomenon of “kids-for cash” whereby judges imposed harsh sentences on juveniles for minor offenses and making sure that juvenile culprits were directed to privately-run juvenile facilities in exchange for money, thus profiting from destroying kids’ future. The documentary also shows the Exploitation of Airline pilots, the ones we trust with our lives are barely paid minimum wage and sometimes rely on food stamps or second jobs to make their ends meet. The film also sheds light on how people’s tax money was given to bail out and help the very institutions (banks) that used to victimize and exploit the downtrodden.

What the documentary actually shows is how America is being run like a corporation. Bank and corporations had one plan that of remaking America so as to create the perfect conditions for exploitation to occur. Corporate greed has thus bought off the political system and transformed the latter into an organ designed primarily to serve and enrich its corporate masters, In other words, the interest of the 1 percent capitalist in the country.