Patrick Tancula

SOC 380
Erin
4/11/2014
Capitalism: A Love Story

Is greed really good? The philosophical credo of capitalism is put to the test
in Michael Moores documentary Capitalism: A Love Story. In this film, he examines
the status of the global economy. Specifically, he focuses on the capitalist free
market system and the merits of such a system. This type of system has always
encouraged greed as a positive motivating force. However, I argue that Michael
Moore proves throughout this film that capitalism breeds a greedy every-man-for-
himself mentality that ultimately will destroy capitalism.
The film opens with a montage of security footage showing several bank
robbery attempts. Most of the criminals are dressed in the prototypical black ski
mask carrying some sort of weapon. These are the images most conjure up when
they think of thieves and swindlers. However, Moore has a different persona in mind
for these characters. He prefers to focus on large-scale thieves, lambasting
institutions from Wall Streets gambling mentality to for-profit prisons to the
financial industrys influence in Washington to corporations that take out life
insurance policies on their employees. As the movie progresses, we see that the
benefits of capitalism are significantly concentrated in the upper class. Indeed, as
the upper class makes more money, the class gap begins to widen and the middle
class will gradually disappear.
The varied topics Moore chooses to critique provide perfect illustrations of
neoliberal case studies. Typical prescriptions include privatizing public enterprises,
deregulating industries and enhancing the role of the private sector in modern
society. Neoliberal advocates claim that this leads to job creation, competitive
markets and economic booms. Moores examples show the flip side of this coin. He
interviews several families facing evictions, victims of deregulation that led to a
sharp spike in predatory loans. He talks about the ideal that private enterprise is
always more effective than state agencies. Moores response to this is a profile on a
juvenile prison that profited off of incarceration time for youths. It doesnt take
much from the narrative to explain how that leads to inappropriate jail sentences.
In addition, Michael Moore brings to light a well-hidden corporate secret.
Large multinational companies are taking out life insurance policies on lower level
employees. Generally, if an employee has a family, this is a wise decision. However,
these policies are being taken out without the knowledge of the workers family, and
the company is the sole benefactor. Moore refers to these as dead peasants
policies. This term comes from the idea that these corporate owned life insurance
policies are an inherent conflict of interest. With these policies in place, most of
these lower level employees are worth more to the corporation dead than they are
alive. In a tearful interview with a former Wal-Mart employees husband, we see
how a lower-middle class family loses its wife and mother while one of the largest
companies in the world receives the payment for her life insurance.
Capitalism: A Love Story provides a domestic illustration of the international
neoliberal programs weve learned about in class this semester. While neoliberal
prescriptions might sound logical in theory, often times the international
institutions implementing them do not see the tangible effects. He shows the human
victims of deregulation, privatization and greed. Moore pleads for a world system
that could succeed based on cooperation rather than competition. As the movie
ends, he asks again, Is greed good? He doesnt provide a direct answer, but the
countless portraits of the victims of capitalism provide what I believe to be his
answer.