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.
Showing posts with label Michael Moore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Moore. Show all posts
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Documentaries
I don't know why but I'm a big fan of documentaries. I am beyond ignorant when it comes to anything related to politics, history, geography or economics, but for whatever reason I am all about documentaries about politics or economics (not so much history or geography...).
A few months ago I raved about Sicko and have since been up in arms about the health insurance system. It's the kind of thing I can't really think about too much because it just makes me so mad it ends up depressing me because it's such a lost cause--I don't even waste time trying to dispute the fact that my health insurance inexplicably denied payment for the exact same routine doctor visit that they have faithfully covered the other three times I've gone. After seeing that movie it just seems futile to waste time trying to plead my case--all to get them to count the full $120 out-of-pocket towards my $500 out-of-pocket per year limit. Even though it costs $120 out of my pocket, somehow they only will count $53 as my out-of-pocket expense. So I'm paying $100 a month to have the luxury of being able to go to "out of network" doctors--a privilege almost non-existent in these days of managed healthcare--yet before they will cover any of these out of network doctor visits I have to shell out an additional $500 per calendar year. Except now it turns out that the $500 limit isn't what actually comes out of my pocket; it's what they THINK should be coming out of my pocket. So even though I'm out $120, they only count it as $53. So basically, the $500 out of pocket limit becomes $1,200 a year for the insurance premium, then $500 THEN another who knows how much--at least double that--in out of pocket expenses that they consider to be outrageous or whatever.
So, as it's turning out, I can go on the much cheaper (half the cost per month) HMO insurance which covers the same as my current plan except no out of network benefits, and just pay the visits myself as I'm already doing, and I'd come out $50 richer every month. Anyway, I digress....I hadn't really thought of it that way until just now.
ANYWAY...back to today's documentary: Maxed Out. It's about the whole credit card debt crisis in this country. For some inexplicable reason I am fixated on the whole subject of debt and American excess. Don't ask me why because, as I said, I know nothing about economics or business; the main thing I know about money is how to spend (hence, I guess, the quest to keep my finances in line with horror stories of others' financial ruin). At any rate (no pun intended!), any news item, book or movie about anything having to do with crazy debt intrigues me.
Since I went off on that health insurance tangent I have now lost my train of thought about Maxed Out, but maybe that fact says it all about this movie: it wasn't that memorable. It was ok and I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor who writes about financial issues. Actually, I am only a fan in principal, seeing as I have yet to actually read one of her books, although I have read excerpts from them in other favorite books like The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts. (like I said, I have for some reason become totally fixated on the subject of money, especially as it pertains to women and, in particular, women with children.)
ANYWAY, I clearly can't keep a straight train of thought here but I would say yes, you should see Maxed Out then read The Feminine Mistake and all of Elizabeth Warren's books, then we can discuss.
I don't know why but I'm a big fan of documentaries. I am beyond ignorant when it comes to anything related to politics, history, geography or economics, but for whatever reason I am all about documentaries about politics or economics (not so much history or geography...).
A few months ago I raved about Sicko and have since been up in arms about the health insurance system. It's the kind of thing I can't really think about too much because it just makes me so mad it ends up depressing me because it's such a lost cause--I don't even waste time trying to dispute the fact that my health insurance inexplicably denied payment for the exact same routine doctor visit that they have faithfully covered the other three times I've gone. After seeing that movie it just seems futile to waste time trying to plead my case--all to get them to count the full $120 out-of-pocket towards my $500 out-of-pocket per year limit. Even though it costs $120 out of my pocket, somehow they only will count $53 as my out-of-pocket expense. So I'm paying $100 a month to have the luxury of being able to go to "out of network" doctors--a privilege almost non-existent in these days of managed healthcare--yet before they will cover any of these out of network doctor visits I have to shell out an additional $500 per calendar year. Except now it turns out that the $500 limit isn't what actually comes out of my pocket; it's what they THINK should be coming out of my pocket. So even though I'm out $120, they only count it as $53. So basically, the $500 out of pocket limit becomes $1,200 a year for the insurance premium, then $500 THEN another who knows how much--at least double that--in out of pocket expenses that they consider to be outrageous or whatever.
So, as it's turning out, I can go on the much cheaper (half the cost per month) HMO insurance which covers the same as my current plan except no out of network benefits, and just pay the visits myself as I'm already doing, and I'd come out $50 richer every month. Anyway, I digress....I hadn't really thought of it that way until just now.
ANYWAY...back to today's documentary: Maxed Out. It's about the whole credit card debt crisis in this country. For some inexplicable reason I am fixated on the whole subject of debt and American excess. Don't ask me why because, as I said, I know nothing about economics or business; the main thing I know about money is how to spend (hence, I guess, the quest to keep my finances in line with horror stories of others' financial ruin). At any rate (no pun intended!), any news item, book or movie about anything having to do with crazy debt intrigues me.
Since I went off on that health insurance tangent I have now lost my train of thought about Maxed Out, but maybe that fact says it all about this movie: it wasn't that memorable. It was ok and I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor who writes about financial issues. Actually, I am only a fan in principal, seeing as I have yet to actually read one of her books, although I have read excerpts from them in other favorite books like The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts. (like I said, I have for some reason become totally fixated on the subject of money, especially as it pertains to women and, in particular, women with children.)
ANYWAY, I clearly can't keep a straight train of thought here but I would say yes, you should see Maxed Out then read The Feminine Mistake and all of Elizabeth Warren's books, then we can discuss.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
I just saw Sicko and I swear to god, if I didn't have kids and a fiancee, I'd be packing a bag and moving to France or London right now. Ok, let me backpedal and preface this by saying that a) I am the most lenient movie critic around and am notorious for giving rave reviews for basically every movie I see and b) I am completely gullible when it comes to Michael Moore and basically don't question anything he says.
I'm usually not one for buying into propaganda, or what I believe to be propaganda, but I have to say that I totally buy everything he brings to light in this movie. I am just dumbfounded and, frankly, depressed, that we can live in the purported best, wealthiest country in the world yet the healthcare system is so horrific.
If you haven't seen the movie, you need to, but in the meantime allow me to summarize and put my own spin on it for you. ;)
The movie starts off with the horror stories of dozens of different people--from a couple who have to sell their house and move into their daughter's computer room because they were bankrupted by medical co-pays, to a woman who worked in the same hospital that denied her husband's life-saving bone marrow transplant because it was deemed "experimental" so he died, to the mom of an 18 month-old little girl who was brought to the hospital with a fever of 104 but denied treatment because the hospital wasn't a Kaiser facility and by the time the mom got her to the approved hospital the girl went into cardiac arrest and died, to volunteer 9/11 rescue workers whose lives have been ruined by the health problems caused by their heroism sifting through the rubble and helping save lives at ground zero.
As if that stuff isn't bad enough--and doesn't make you feel like it's just a matter of time until we all get cancer or something that ultimately won't be covered by health insurance and end up in the same position as the people in the movie--he then takes you on a tour of other countries' health systems: Canada, London, France and Cuba. I'm sure there is another side to the coin, but what he portrays just makes you feel like you're living in a dream--a very bad dream.
There are horror stories of "rich Americans" who are paying top dollar or whose employers are paying top dollar for health coverage who sill have to fight tooth and nail just to get routine medical care--and that's paying through the nose for it. Then he takes you to Canada where these very rational, nice Canadians all talk about how pleasant and effective--and absolutely free--their healthcare system is, then to London for more of the same, then on to the kicker, France.
When he gets to France it's like the grand finale of a fireworks display: he suddenly just bombarding us with how great France is in every way and how, by contrast, America sucks all the worse. My favorite scene is where he's in a restaurant with a bunch of American expats and they just start listing all the ways France kicks ass. Healthcare is free--and great: one French guy lives in America his entire adult life but then gets cancer so goes back to France for (free) treatment, then once he's cured, his doctor gives him a 3 month pass to "rest" so he can get his strength back, which he does in the South of France while being paid 100% of his salary (65% by the government and 35% by his employer). Then they start the litany of other unbelievably-good things in France: a legally-mandated minimum of five weeks of leave per yer--and that's not including unlimited sick time, an extra week for your honeymoon if you get married, and a day off if you have to move--the unheard of by American standards maternity leave, free childcare, free colleges....oh, and free babysitters that will come to your house and take care of your baby and even do your laundry! WTF?
I could go on but I'll save some surprises for when you go see it yourself; suffice it to say that even though I have never so much as set a toe outside this country (except to Canada when I was a young kid so I don't count that) and am the least worldly person I know, it made me want to pack a bag and get on the next flight to Paris. It made me wonder why I'm even living in this country of greedy morons, this country where we have access to the most expensive, sophisticated medical equipment and drugs in the world, yet the only thing that matters is making a buck. You watch this movie where he talks to people at hospitals in England and France and even Cuba and see how money doesn't even enter into the equation--it's like every other country is some kind of fairyland where there are these beautiful, clean hospitals where nobody has to wait more than a few minutes and everyone gets top-notch FREE healthcare. Meanwhile, back in the good ol' U S of A Kaiser is sticking sick old ladies into cabs with a voucher for a one-way fare to skid row and our "Heroes" can't even get tested for--let alone treated for--illness sustained when they were willingly sacrificing their lungs at ground zero for the love of their country.
What's the catch? And will things here ever change or is the grim reality he exposes just a fact of life here in the land of the free and the home of the brave?
I'm usually not one for buying into propaganda, or what I believe to be propaganda, but I have to say that I totally buy everything he brings to light in this movie. I am just dumbfounded and, frankly, depressed, that we can live in the purported best, wealthiest country in the world yet the healthcare system is so horrific.
If you haven't seen the movie, you need to, but in the meantime allow me to summarize and put my own spin on it for you. ;)
The movie starts off with the horror stories of dozens of different people--from a couple who have to sell their house and move into their daughter's computer room because they were bankrupted by medical co-pays, to a woman who worked in the same hospital that denied her husband's life-saving bone marrow transplant because it was deemed "experimental" so he died, to the mom of an 18 month-old little girl who was brought to the hospital with a fever of 104 but denied treatment because the hospital wasn't a Kaiser facility and by the time the mom got her to the approved hospital the girl went into cardiac arrest and died, to volunteer 9/11 rescue workers whose lives have been ruined by the health problems caused by their heroism sifting through the rubble and helping save lives at ground zero.
As if that stuff isn't bad enough--and doesn't make you feel like it's just a matter of time until we all get cancer or something that ultimately won't be covered by health insurance and end up in the same position as the people in the movie--he then takes you on a tour of other countries' health systems: Canada, London, France and Cuba. I'm sure there is another side to the coin, but what he portrays just makes you feel like you're living in a dream--a very bad dream.
There are horror stories of "rich Americans" who are paying top dollar or whose employers are paying top dollar for health coverage who sill have to fight tooth and nail just to get routine medical care--and that's paying through the nose for it. Then he takes you to Canada where these very rational, nice Canadians all talk about how pleasant and effective--and absolutely free--their healthcare system is, then to London for more of the same, then on to the kicker, France.
When he gets to France it's like the grand finale of a fireworks display: he suddenly just bombarding us with how great France is in every way and how, by contrast, America sucks all the worse. My favorite scene is where he's in a restaurant with a bunch of American expats and they just start listing all the ways France kicks ass. Healthcare is free--and great: one French guy lives in America his entire adult life but then gets cancer so goes back to France for (free) treatment, then once he's cured, his doctor gives him a 3 month pass to "rest" so he can get his strength back, which he does in the South of France while being paid 100% of his salary (65% by the government and 35% by his employer). Then they start the litany of other unbelievably-good things in France: a legally-mandated minimum of five weeks of leave per yer--and that's not including unlimited sick time, an extra week for your honeymoon if you get married, and a day off if you have to move--the unheard of by American standards maternity leave, free childcare, free colleges....oh, and free babysitters that will come to your house and take care of your baby and even do your laundry! WTF?
I could go on but I'll save some surprises for when you go see it yourself; suffice it to say that even though I have never so much as set a toe outside this country (except to Canada when I was a young kid so I don't count that) and am the least worldly person I know, it made me want to pack a bag and get on the next flight to Paris. It made me wonder why I'm even living in this country of greedy morons, this country where we have access to the most expensive, sophisticated medical equipment and drugs in the world, yet the only thing that matters is making a buck. You watch this movie where he talks to people at hospitals in England and France and even Cuba and see how money doesn't even enter into the equation--it's like every other country is some kind of fairyland where there are these beautiful, clean hospitals where nobody has to wait more than a few minutes and everyone gets top-notch FREE healthcare. Meanwhile, back in the good ol' U S of A Kaiser is sticking sick old ladies into cabs with a voucher for a one-way fare to skid row and our "Heroes" can't even get tested for--let alone treated for--illness sustained when they were willingly sacrificing their lungs at ground zero for the love of their country.
What's the catch? And will things here ever change or is the grim reality he exposes just a fact of life here in the land of the free and the home of the brave?
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