You Must See Capatalism: A Love Story

I admit it--I'm biased--I LOVE Michael Moore. Remember my post about Sicko? I'm telling you--a) if you haven't already seen Sicko by now, you better rent it tonight. Especially given this whole health care reform thing. You know I don't like to talk politics or anything approximating anything political because it just pisses me off too much and I get all agitated and start talking too fast and too much and yelling and then can't sleep at night because I'm all riled up. So I will digress because I'm already veering off-topic...but just rent Sicko and see if you still don't think there should be universal health care in this country. INCLUDING a public option.

Anyway, back to my original thought--b) if you live in this country you need to see Capatalism. I will grant you that it's not as tight as some of his other movies and it took a while for even me--Micheal Moore-loving and gullible as all hell--to get sucked in, but he eventually got down to it and the result is a movie that makes me basically sad and embarassed to live in a country where shit like he reveals in the movie goes on.

**Spoiler alert, but not really because the movie will still be good**

Have you noticed that over the past few years there have been a lot more plane crashes than there used to be? I have commented to Patrick about this a bunch of times. It just seems like you never really used to hear about plane crashes, then in just the past few years, it seems like there have been a bunch. Anyway--when I saw Capitalism I realized there is a total correlation between what Michael Moore reveals and why there are more crashes. Namely--that pilots make no money and often have to either work second jobs, take extra shifts or, as one pilot in the movie explains, sometimes even sell their plasma to make ends meet. Yes, that's right--that dude who's flying you from NYC to LA may have just spent yesterday selling half his blood matter, which means he may not be in tip-top shape at 30,000 feet. I'll spare you the details but go see the movie and tell me if I'm crazy or you think there may be a grain of truth to what I'm thinking. That while airline CEOs are making a mint, the pilots are making less than McDonald's managers and subsisting on food stamps and second jobs. Sure makes me not ever want to fly again.

Worse yet are the "Dead Peasants" insurance policies. This guy explains it better than I would. You tell me why it is ok that something like this exists and why companies are ok with purchasing it? And cry me a river that Wal-Mart has apparently now cancelled these kinds of policies; like they should get a gold star for having done something as corrupt as this but cancelling it once the general public heard about it and the company's reputation was tarnished as a result. That's real noble. Did Walmart also give back the money to each dead employee's family?

Anyway, go see the movie. Check out Michael Moore's website. And pass it on.