A Bit More On Michael Moore

Michael Moore has been on a tour promoting his most recent film, which happens to be about capitalism. I realize he's too easy a target, but he's so contradictory and illogical even in one six and a half minute clip that I have to point it out.



At the 2:40 mark, he says, "[He has to make sure]...that the pie is divided fairly amongst the people and not just a few people get the majority of the loot while everybody else has to struggle for the crumbs."

This is a common argument that I'm sure all of you have heard. People deserve a fair piece of the pie. FLG's first question is this: You're talking about dividing a pie. Yet, where did said pie come from? Did it magically show up at our doorstep? Did we steal it off the windowsill of some grandma? Where? Presumably, somebody baked the pie. Normally, we would say that the person that baked the pie gets to cut it up as they see fit. Perhaps grandpa helped peel the apples, so he gets a slice. Maybe she likes seeing her grandson smile, so he gets a piece. But apparently Michael Moore sees a pie and knows better than grandma. How often do you think grandma is going to bake pies if Michael Moore keeps coming in and telling her how to cut it up? Not very long, I reckon.

In reality, what we are talking about is capitalists and entrepreneurs who funded and built companies are grandma. Bill Gates is rich because he baked an awful lot of pies and kept pieces of each for himself. One really has to focus on the static situation, the present situation, a short-term analysis to talk about distributing a pie. No concern for where the pie came from, i.e. no concern about the past. No concern for where another pie will come from, i.e. no concern about the future.

This explains why at the 2:50 mark he says that capitalism has failed. Of course, if you look at the present crisis it looks like it has failed. But if you look at the last century or so. Shit. If you look at the last two decades just in China, the benefits of capitalism are indisputable. Sure, there are some problems. Inequality, environmental, etc. But hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty.

This could all be easily dismissed as just stupidity on Michael Moore's part, but at the 2:10 mark, he says, "Obviously, I do well because my films have done well."

Well, Bill Gates is rich because Microsoft has done well. In fact, Michael, your films are kinda like grandma baking a pie. You created something and receive the benefits for it. Seems kinda strange that you are morally righteous and have simply done well because what you created has done well. Yet, those other people, those rich people, are somehow morally repugnant because they did well because what they created did well.