Boycott Michael Moore

Quote from trefoil:

In his own completely crazy way, the OP managed, probably entirely by accident, to hit on the essence of, well, not capitalism, but free markets.
Detroit has been a company town since the Twenties, when Ford and then GM made the car a symbol of sex and status.
A powerful combo, that you would think would guarantee prosperity for more than a generation. But by the Fifties, smart economists already knew that Detroit needed to diversify out of its dependence on cars.
Which, of course, never happened. Michael Moore was raised in an environment where all of the power and all of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of a very few. He was smack in the middle of an industrial supply region. The same way as the rest of the world only cares about Saudi Arabia because of its oil, the rest of the world only cares about Detroit because of cars.
Well, cared. By now, it's become obvious that Detroit's day is long since past.
Unlike other cities, like LA, SF, or NYC, where new industries and trends come up all the time, Detroit could think of cars and only cars.
Capitalism as described by Adam Smith and later by such sharp observers as Jane Jacobs and NN Taleb, is all about the dispersion of power, so that no one ever gets a total grip on the economy and the politics of a place.
Michael Moore comes out of Michigan, where it was all autos, all the time. Like most everyone who comes out of a supply region like that, his views tend to the extreme. No different than the righties who infest this part of the forum, and who have no idea what it means to have an economy with lots of opportunities that sucks in people from all over, including "illegal" immigrants. Empty counties and dead-end cities seem to be their ideal, where a few guys lord it over the rest. To them, that's the natural order. It has as much to do with the economy of the real centers of growth as a feudal duchy has. Which is to say, none at all.
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We should all be grateful to Detriot because if it wasn't for them we would all be shoveling horseshit. Isn't that right, Trefoil?
 
Quote from IShopAtPublix:

Michael Moore did not phrase it right. Capitalism in its purest(unregulated) form has child labor, zero worker rights, and a total absence of any moral compass beyond pursuit of the almighty dollar. In essence, it is a vile construct and should never be allowed to exist au naturel. It is still better than communism though.

Properly regulated and channeled in the right direction it becomes one of the foundations of a robust economy.
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I think the whole child labor thing is ridiculous. Like kids dont work now. They work, they just dont get paid for it. They have to mow the lawn, they have to clean the house, take out the garbage. Of course this "unpaid labor" gets away with it by calling it "chores" If a kid can spend 2 hours per day doing "chores" why cant he get a job at wal-mart stocking shelves for a couple hours. I bet the kid would LOVE doing that alot more than his unpaid chores at home. Plus they stay out of trouble when they work. This is why kids of 60-70 years ago were so well-mannered. They worked in stores and learned responsibility from their work and built a strong work ethic. When they went away from home and got a real job, they spent 30-40 years at that job. Now if a person lasts more than 2 years at a job, there is a good chance he has been there the longest.

I'm betting most people in here probably have not spent more than 3 or 4 years at a single job. (trading not counted!) I'm talking about the 'get a paycheck' type jobs.
 
Quote from peilthetraveler:

I think the whole child labor thing is ridiculous. Like kids dont work now. They work, they just dont get paid for it. They have to mow the lawn, they have to clean the house, take out the garbage. Of course this "unpaid labor" gets away with it by calling it "chores" If a kid can spend 2 hours per day doing "chores" why cant he get a job at wal-mart stocking shelves for a couple hours. I bet the kid would LOVE doing that alot more than his unpaid chores at home. Plus they stay out of trouble when they work. This is why kids of 60-70 years ago were so well-mannered. They worked in stores and learned responsibility from their work and built a strong work ethic. When they went away from home and got a real job, they spent 30-40 years at that job. Now if a person lasts more than 2 years at a job, there is a good chance he has been there the longest.

I'm betting most people in here probably have not spent more than 3 or 4 years at a single job. (trading not counted!) I'm talking about the 'get a paycheck' type jobs.
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Trying working on a farm without ANY mechanized implements all day long (or large portion of it) as a kid and tell me it is a joke.

Child labor deprived people of their dreams and education.
 
Auto makers went to Detroit because of the large Polish population at the time... they were the most talented machinists.. over time that manual machine work got replaced by automated machines... not much reason to stay in Detroit at all anymore...

Everybody that has tried to replace capitalism has failed miserably, where is Michael Moore's brain? He was alive to see the aftermath of the Soviet Union, it was a disaster... Cuba is a disaster... currently it only works where you have lots of oil and you don't pay for your own national defense... and Venezuela has lots of oil but probably will still manage to turn into a disaster...

I have to think that Michael Moore isn't all there basically... he does influence lots of very young voters unfortunately...
 
Quote from IShopAtPublix:

Capitalism in its purest(unregulated) form has child labor, zero worker rights, and a total absence of any moral compass beyond pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Properly regulated and channeled in the right direction it becomes one of the foundations of a robust economy.
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Capitalism in its purest form provides free choice and equal opportunity.
Regulation only helps maintain status quo and limits competition.
Example minimum wage only makes it harder for a new business to compete against an existing one.
 
Quote from trefoil:

In his own completely crazy way, the OP managed, probably entirely by accident, to hit on the essence of, well, not capitalism, but free markets.
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Thanks for the thoughtful response. But I disagree with being called crazy. What is crazy about standing up and calling Michael Moore a hypocrite, and calling him out on his political agenda? The man isn't even distributing 'thinly veiled' propaganda anymore. I think that it is immoral, if not outright dangerous, to allow openly socialist propaganda to be produced and distributed in an uncontested fashion. Someone has to say "this man is a fool, don't buy his bullshit". In a recent poll, when asked whether capitalism or socialism is a better system, 53% of American adults cited capitalism, 20% said socialism and 27% said they weren't sure. Democrats were closely divided, with 39% preferring capitalism and 30% backing socialism. So it certainly can happen in America, its just a matter of the right climate. A deep recession is a pretty good climate to swing the pendulum towards socialism, don't you think?
 
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