Michael Moore’s newest documentary entitled “Capitalism: A Love Story” explores the American economy through its capitalistic tendencies. Much like Moore’s other documentaries, such as “Sicko” and “Bowling for Columbine,” “Capitalism: A Love Story” is a crafty combination of humor, heart-grabbing stories and enraging facts. Despite claims from both sides of the aisle that Moore bends facts and purposefully manipulates otherwise authentic information to suit his agenda, his personality and documentaries are undeniably recognizable and memorable. “Capitalism” deconstructs the state of the economy and explains how the U.S. got into the mess. Moore skips no corners and makes every possible attempt throughout the documentary to hit the viewers with jaw-dropping facts and monetary figures. One element of the film analyzes the greed and corruption of Wall Street, such as its multi-million dollar corporate raises and celebrations in the tropics, using money that was meant for prevention of bankruptcy and economic collapse. A second, more relatable level of the film presents itself alongside the monetary facts: the everyday average American who is taken advantage of. One such story is of multiple families who had family members die while working for Wal-Mart, only to have Wal-Mart claim up to millions of dollars in life insurance policies. These so-called “dead pheasant” insurance policies were, shockingly enough, taken out on Wal-Mart’s employees without their knowledge. What were left behind were families without a dad, mom, husband or wife, and many dollars in debt, while Wal-Mart reaped millions of dollars in benefits. Although being sure to discuss these greedy practices, Moore is fair in noting that Wal-Mart no longer takes out “dead pheasant” insurance policies on its employees. But, as he noted, employees are still called “associates.” Another controversial and more recent topic brought up by Moore is health care. Although Moore heavily went into the state of affairs as far as health care is concerned in his documentary “Sicko,” Moore still touches on the topic in “Capitalism.” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders spoke after a showing of “Capitalism” on Oct. 2. He echoed Moore’s remarks in many ways. Being the only member of the U.S. Senate truly affiliated with the Independent Party, Sanders offered his own unique views on the topics. On health care, he was proud to affirm that his healthcare bill was one of the very few currently up for discussion that included single-payer universal health care. He, like Moore, noted that Americans need to be active in getting change to come, despite corporate greed often seeming overwhelming and apparently undefeatable.
