Boy, did we argue about this afterward. I thought it was unbalanced and gimmicky; Pavey thought that it accurately slammed the iniquities of capitalism.We all know Michael Moore can resort to massive overstatement in order to make his point, but his use of a criminal case where owners of a privately owned juvenile detention center bribed a local judge to sentence kids to time behind bars as "a typical example of what's wrong with capitalism" was just too much of a stretch for me. Claiming that crime - when the illegal pursuit of money harms the innocent - is capitalism, is just plain stupid in my view.
Similarly one-sided was Moore's focus on just one half of the sub-prime mortgage debacle. He banged on endlessly about those despicable Goldman Sachs types sneakily promoting variable rate mortgages to the unsuspecting, under-educated and poor, totally ignoring the fact that it takes two to tango.
Finally (for me anyway) were Moore's stunts - schlepping around Wall Street in an armored truck demanding that bail-out recipients return their ill-gotten gains to the taxpayer, and stretching "Crime Scene" tape around the headquarters of AIG and Morgan Stanley - were just time-wasting.
One interesting and potentially disgusting thing to check out is whether your company takes out life insurance on YOU, their employee. The film used this as more evidence of the evil nature of capitalism, and your view may depend on whether your company will make money when you die. See for yourself.
I could go on - and did last night, over dinner. Sorry Pav.
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