Moore wants to put 'stake in the heart' of capitalism
By: The Canadian Press, Date: Sat. Sep. 12 2009 4:45 PM ET
TORONTO — "Manifesto" was one of the titles being bandied around
by Michael Moore for his new movie -- a fitting one given that his
scathing attack on capitalism calls for nothing less than putting a
"stake through the heart of the beast."
"Capitalism: A Love Story" examines the economic meltdown and
subsequent bailout of Wall Street and calls on the audience to reject
America's particular brand of free market economics in favour of a
system based on the ideals of democracy.
Moore, who is promoting the movie at the Toronto International Film
Festival, said Saturday that his latest work is really the culmination of
two decades years of sounding the alarm about the disastrous conse-
quences for working people when capitalist greed runs rampant.
"Capitalists love their money and they not only love their money, they
love our money," Moore said. "The upper one per cent have more
financial wealth than the bottom 95 per cent. Seriously, when anthro-
pologists dig us up what do you think they're going to call that?"
Moore's documentary career began in 1989 with the release of
"Roger and Me," in which the filmmaker chronicles his efforts to
reach the top brass at General Motors to get some answers amid
the economic ruin in his hometown of Flint, Mich. - which had
been a booming auto town. In his television show "TV Nation"
Moore took on other pillars of corporate America and in his
documentary "Sicko" it was his country's health-care system
under the microscope.
His latest film is "really is an extension of a lot of things that
I've been saying for 20 years." A manifesto of sorts then?
"There's a point sometime back where I think that word was a
potential title of this film," Moore said. "I really set out to make
this film with the sort of attitude of, if I was not able to make
another film after this... what would that film say? What would I
put in that film knowing that it might be my last film for a while?"
Wall St. tries to explain itself
Exotic investment products, like the subprime mortgage securities
that caught much of the blame for the global financial meltdown,
are a main target in the movie. To show just how confusing these
things are, Moore has Wall Street types and academics attempt
to explain them. It doesn't go well.
The complex mathematical formulas thrown up on the screen that
explain such products also do little to clarify exactly how they work -
at least to the average person. Now Wall Street is at it again, Moore
says, barely one year after the mortgage meltdown. This time it
involves a proposal to turn so-called life settlements -- when ill or
elderly people cash out on life insurance policies before they die --
into financial products to sell on the market.
"The dirtiest word in capitalism is enough, there's no such thing as
enough. They want more and more and more," he said. "It's like a
beast and you have to stop the beast... You can't regulate the beast,
you really have to put a stake in its heart otherwise it will just find
a new path."
It's not that he's against people making money. "I believe that I should
make my money on my hard work and on my ideas and not sit around
making money off money," he said. "I don't think we advance ourselves
if we have a lot of people sitting around looking at the stock ticker on CNBC,
hour by hour figuring, 'Where's my money going? What can I do to move
my money around?"'
The film illustrates the stark contrast between those who are being turfed
out of their homes and executives of bailed out banks who are receiving
million-dollar bonuses. "People are already upset and they're confused by
what's happened, especially in the last year. I'm trying to speak to that
and hopefully channel it toward something positive," Moore said.
"That's what I'm calling for, a democratic economic system where you and
I have a say in how this economy is run. That's all I'm asking for, that we
just apply the democracy that we love to our economy."
The film is due in Canadian theatres on Oct. 2.
I'm not as harsh toward him as most people here, but he really got illusions
of grandeur with "a stake in the heart of the beat" !
How can he think that a docu could do that to a system that is establish
in most country and people in others want it ?!???
When I'm sick, I prefer to go to a clinic then an hospital, less waiting time 
