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'We the People' to 'King of the World': You're Fired!
Friends,
Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors -- a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else -- "You're fired!"
I simply can't believe it. This stunning, unprecedented action has left me speechless for the past two days. I keep saying, "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"
This bold move has sent the heads of corporate America spinning and spewing pea soup. Obama has issued this edict: The government of, by, and for the people is in charge here, not big business. John McCain got it. On the floor of the Senate he asked, "What does this signal send to other corporations and financial institutions about whether the federal government will fire them as well?" Senator Bob Corker said it "should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise." The stock market plunged as the masters of the universe asked themselves, "Am I next?" And they whispered to each other, "What are we going to do about this Obama?"
Not much, fellows. He has the massive will of the American people behind him -- and he has been granted permission by us to do what he sees fit. If you liked this week's all-net 3-pointer, stay tuned.
I write this letter to you in memory of the hundreds of thousands of workers over the past 25+ years who have been tossed into the trash heap by General Motors. Many saw their lives ruined for good. They turned to alcohol or drugs, their marriages fell apart, some took their own lives. Most moved on, moved out, moved over, moved away. They ended up working two jobs for half the pay they were getting at GM. And they cursed the CEO of GM for bringing ruin to their lives.
Not one of them ever thought that one day they would witness the CEO receive the same treatment. Of course Chairman Wagoner will not have to sign up for food stamps or be evicted from his home or tell his kids they'll be going to the community college, not the university. Instead, he will get a $23 million golden parachute. But the slip in his hands is still pink, just like the hundreds of thousands that others received -- except his was issued by us, via the Obama-man. Here's the door, buster. See ya. Don't wanna be ya.
I began my day today in Washington, D.C. I went to the U.S. Senate and got into their Finance Committee's hearing on the Wall Street bailout. The overseers wanted to know how the banks spent the money. And many of these banks won't tell them. They've taken trillions and nobody knows where the money went. It certainly didn't go to create jobs, relieve mortgage holders, or free up loans that people need. It was so shocking to listen to this, I had to leave before it was over. But it gave me an idea for the movie I was shooting.
Later, I stopped by the National Archives to stand in line to see the original copy of our Constitution. I thought about how twenty years ago this month I was just down the street finishing my first film, a personal plea to warn the nation about GM and the deadly economy it ruled. On that March day in 1989 I was broke, having collected the last of my unemployment checks, relying on help from my friends (Bob and Siri would take me out to dinner and always pick up the check, the assistant manager at the movie theater would sneak me in so I could watch an occasional movie, Laurie and Jack bought an old Steenbeck (editing) machine for me, John Richard would slip me an unused plane ticket so I could go home for Christmas, Rod would do anything for me and drive to Flint whenever I needed something for the film). My late mother (she would've turned 88 tomorrow if she were still with us) and my GM autoworker dad told me in the kitchen they wanted to help and handed me a check for an astounding thousand dollars. I didn't know they even had a thousand dollars. I refused it, they insisted I take it -- "No!" -- and then, in that parental voice, told me I was to cash it so I could finish my movie. I did. And I did.
So on that March day in 1989, as I was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue, my 9-year-old car just died. I coasted over to the curb, put my head down on the steering wheel and started to cry. I had no money to take it in to be repaired, and I certainly had nothing to pay the tow truck driver. So I got out, screwed the license plates off so I wouldn't be fined, turned my back and just left it there for good. I looked over at the building next to me. It said "National Archives." What better place to donate my dead car, I thought, as I walked the rest of the way home.
Though it wasn't easy for me, I still never had to suffer what so many of my friends and neighbors went through, thanks to General Motors and an economic system rigged against them. I wonder what they must have all thought when they woke up this Monday morning to read in the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press the headlines that Obama had fired the CEO of GM. Oh -- wait a minute. They couldn't read that. There was no Free Press or News. Monday was the day that both papers ended home delivery. It was canceled (as it will be for four days every week) because the daily newspapers, like General Motors, like Detroit, are broke.
I await the President's next superhero move.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
(Go State!)
- Posted in
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117 Comments so far
Show AllIs it just me or does anyone else have the odd feeling that Michael Moore will one day be exceedingly disillusioned with Obama?
Yes and the disillusioning has already begun.
q
Michael Moore is much more tuned in than you give him credit for. A long time ago he figured out how this rotten system works. Like many of us, he understands that having Obama in the White House is a qualitative change over what has preceded it. It opens the door to real change in the dimensions of political discourse in the country. Now it's up to the American working class to take on this rotten system and change it. Bashing Obama isn't going to help and can be very dangerous as it leaves open the very real possibility that some right wing populous movement becomes the alternative to Obama.
Be careful what you hope for! Now is the time to push Obama - the first President the US has seen in a long time, that is pushable by the progressive forces - not just shit on him because he isn't as progressive as we'd like.
-----------------------------------------
What Is Marxism? - a short primer on a subject the working class needs to know.
http://www.marxist.com/Theory/what_is_marxism.html
I agree with you.
Like you I am unhappy with many things that Obama is doing. I am happy with others.
But NO ONE ELSE would have been elected and listened to the left as much as he has. Hilary? Give me a break. We'd still be torturing prisoners under her watch and GITMO would be open for business!
No one else stood a chance at election.
We have both a right and a duty to complain, cajole, and push as hard as we can on Obama. No one else will even bother to listen. But whatever we do we must not walk away from him.
As for Moore, this really was a crappy piece, I have to agree. As vacuous as Rush Limbaugh if Rush had a double digit IQ.
physicscitizen-"We'd still be torturing prisoners under her watch and GITMO would be open for business!"
Newsflash to physicscitizen:
Obama, as reported in many papers, including US ones, reserves the right to "rendition" prisoners. In english speaking countries, rendition is known as kidnapping for the purpose of transporting victims to states that use torture, (ie the US or Egypt, Syria etc.)
...and I am sad to report to you that "gitmo" is still open for business, and we still don't know how many other secret US prisons there are or how many inmates there are.
Perhaps you were confused by Obama when he stated that he was going to continue treating prisoners in the Bush manner - "enemy combatants" - but would refer to the detainees by another name, all the while continuing to hold them indefinitely without habeus corpus. Obama still supports their indefinite detention without their day in court (despite the orders of the increasingly irrelevant US supreme court).
This is why Americans can never get the person they really want for ANY political office.
Establish a strawman argument.
Support the strawman with a post Hoc fallacy
Finally, seal their own fate with a repetitive cycle of false logic.
Then as the real finale justify with redundancy of false logic and the Christian plea, "...we must not walk away from him."
Talk about 'stupid?'
LOL !!! You just covered 90% of CD posts !!
It would be helpful to our education if you would give examples.
Uh, Kucinich, Nader, Mckinney?
"We'd still be torturing prisoners under her watch and GITMO would be open for business!"
It's not WE, its THEY. Furthermore, THEY are still torturing prisoners and GITMO IS still open for business.
Well said.
Moore is an unconscionable opportunist. When he realized that criticizing Democrats and supporting Nader would cost him the backing of his millionaire Hollywood buddies for his films, he cut his conscience to conform to the dicates of expanding his fortune and his business.
Obama has already conspired in the worst looting of a national treasury in the history of the world--trillions of dollars stolen from average taxpayers to line the pockets of greedy and reckless Wall Street gamblers. For this alone he should be impeached, and will go down in history as one of the most craven criminals every to have occupied the White House. On top of this he is planning to expand Bush's imperialist aggression in Afghanistan, and has already retreated from his pledge to push for a speedy withdrawal from Iraq.
This country is teetering on the edge of a cliff, and Obama has surrounded himself with the free-market ideologues who pushed it there. He, like more, is a rank opportunist, whose policies are going to plunge this country into an economic dark age of debt peonage to the capitalist class.
Stop stroking your Obama doll long enough to wake up to what's happening. Read Joseph Stiglitz's op-ed piece in today's New York Times. This Nobelist in economics has called Obama's bank bailout plan "robbery."
And all you are capable of in the face of these crimes is mindless hero worship. Sad.
If Snobama had 1) fired Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, 2) fired a couple of bank CEOs, 3) not staffed his administration with a bunch of financial industry insiders, and 4) supported single-payer health care, I might consider his firing Rick Wagoner a meaningful gesture.
The root of GM's problems (GE's and many other companies' problems as well) lie in the unregulated US financial system which includes insurance companies.
US manufacturing will never regain a global foothold unless Snobama embraces a new financial paradigm, rather than trying to make the existing dysfunctional paradigm work.
It's not just you-- only early-onset dementia will save Moore from the letdown.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Yeah, me.
Maybe someday someone will get elected who never lets anyone down. Many truly seem to believe in the possibility of a president who will do whatever they want and that they'll never be disillusioned with. No disappointments ever! Who would have been the infallible one this time? Would Paul have made it through a term as president and never let his supporters down? Or McKinney? Or Nader, who sometimes seems to have been crowned the most infallible of them all?
Well, it's a pretty untested idea, anyway.
So what are you suggesting? That we all shut up ? Sorry but this is a democracy and you'll just have to put up with folks who think freedom means free speech, and war, greed, a shrinking middle class, and a bad deal for the working families of this nation are all bad ideas.
I am afraid Mr. Moore is a democratic loyalist who thinks the firing of Waggoner signals some massive triumph. It aint.
It is all for show.
This move makes Obama looks tough eventhough in truth he is the puppet of the Banksters and Goldman Sachs.
Wagoner walks with massive $ at what is most likely theoptimal moment for him to get out without it looking like he is bailing on a lost cause. No one will blame him even though there is plenty of blame that should be heaped on his sholders.
GM makes debt not cars.
10 to 1 the debt department will get bailed and the CEO of GMAC will not be fired.
We are all fiat now. (and I don't mean the auto maker)
Look for a massive bailout of GE as well. Their stock has plummeted over the last several months, and something like 45% of their business comes through their financial unit.
I thought he was referring to Obama.
Well not really, but in good time perhaps.
This is a crock of bull puckey. First off, the President has no right to fire the CEO of GM or any corporate entity. Congress holds the powers of the purse strings and should get a set and start working for the people who elected them instead of silentley acquiescing to their major donors.
If anyone truly believes that we have a representative form of government anymore is delusional. If we don't enact term limits and federally funded campaigns nothing will ever change.
This is all smoke and mirrors to appease the masses. Doesn't do a damn thing about the inherent problem of letting these corp's put their interest ahead of this country on the whole. Time to change the whole thing. Long term instaed of short term gains. The U.S. government has no strategic plan to counter our enemies in this global economic war.
one of the most revolting and stupid things moore has ever written.
no love loss for waggoner or GM, but obama fired the CEO b/c the CEO was not quite as eager as obama to cram concessions down the throats of the average autoworker.
the gov't, at the behest of the obama admin, hands over trillion dollars to bankers, but is prepared to destroy the US auto industry, people that actually make something in this world (despite the many problems of the auto industry, and the environmental issues involved above all).
and this is moore's superhero?
what a total fool.
Hooray! In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King....It is nice to note that some here have their eye(s) open and their mind engaged.
Dear Mike, here is your wake up call, it is not ALL about you.
I have not owned a vehicle in about twenty years preferring to live out my commitment to the Earth in a sustainable fashion by walking, using my bike, or public transportation. Detroit made their own bed by ignoring for decades their personal responsibility to make clean, high mileage cars, and to clean up their environmental mess, but instead elected corporate greed over personal responsibility. Perhaps you seen an investigative film entitled, WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? If you did, you might understand their current predicament.
Why not look at your own living choices and reflect what negative impact they have on our Earth Mother before lecturing the rest of us to assuage your own narcissism.
Electric cars are for elitist clowns who want status and bragging rights and who will not do the reckoning. There are no "better" cars. Electric cars are not even a better kind of wrongness. Individually operated cars don't work. Period. There is a law of physics that says that moving anything of a particular weight at a particular speed against a particular resistance of inertia and friction requires a particular amount of energy. In the case of the gas engine car, fuel is burned and waste material is distributed as it moves. In case of electric cars, energy is stored in batteries that have to be recharged by plugging into a power plant, which has already burned the fuel and distributed the waste, no better and no worse than fuel burning cars. Batteries don't create energy, they just store it. They are gas tanks for electrons. If we put electric cars and trucks on the traffic grid, it will require a staggering increase in electric generation capacity and this energy must now come from coal, gas and nuclear.
As for effect on the environment, a conventional car created 26 tons of hazardous waste for every ton the vehicle weighs. A battery powered auto produces twice as much, 52 tons, including a witches' brew of lead and toxic acid. What about all the other problems? Violent car accidents, dismemberment of the city, alienation, full cost of ownership, paving paradise, traffic jams, hostility, destroying the wildlife habitat, and so on? The electric car may be refreshingly quiet, but because of this pleasant development to the ears, it will kill and injure more pedestrians and animals on the road unless it is made to produce loud noises artificially.
According to the Environmental Institute of Heidelberg Germany, each car in developed countries, over its lifetime, is responsible for 820 (34 days) hours of life lost through road fatalities, and 2800 hours (117 days) of life damaged by road traffic accidents. Poor countries have up to 26 times the fatality and injury accidents per mile traveled because of poor vehicle maintenance, bad roads, safety programs , etc..
There are dozens of other reasons and examples of why a car designed world is the problem, but the bottom line is that
the electric car will change none of this, and only serve to make it worse. Redesigning the city and society for walking and public transportation is a solution.
You seem to have done your research. I'd like to read your opinion of the following.
I've been thinking that if we built solar powered electric hydrolysis plants along the seacoasts we could generate a huge amount of hydrogen and oxygen gases. Both can be used in numerous industrial processes, although personally I'd like to see the oxygen simply vented into the atmosphere. The hydrogen could be burned as fuel, recombining with the oxygen and creating only water as a byproduct. Hydrogen could also be used in fuel cells to produce electricity and hot water with no other byproducts. Any waste heat could be used to operate non-polluting stirling engines. I don't have any idea what this would cost to get up and running but it would provide millions of jobs in the process, building solar cells, hydrolysis plants, machinery to capture and store the oxygen and hydrogen, manufacturing and distribution of fuel cells for home and transportation uses, manufacturing of hydrogen or fuel cell powered cars, etc., etc.
I don't know if this idea is practical at all because I don't know how much hydrogen would be needed to replace fossil fuels, and I don't know if it would be practical to build the needed infrastructure.
There is also the issue of possibly toxic byproducts from the production of solar cells and fuel cells. A newer, lower cost of producing solar electricity has been developed that uses a sunlight to electricity producing material that can be "painted" onto a backing surface. Again, there may be toxic byproducts that would need to be dealt with.
And no, this is nothing new, no original thinking here, its been referred to as a "hydrogen economy", but it makes sense, employing pollution free solar electricty production for conversion of seawater to hydrogen and oxygen for use in pollution free processes that require energy input.
Am I way out in left field here? Probably.
-- ekaton
Ever look at your own elitism? Apparently you ought to read more carefully. I was advocating for sustainable choices more in keeping with radical engagement by suggesting expunging PERSONAL auto powered vehicles by using one's two legs, one's bike, or PUBLIC transportation. So given your bombast, I would be interested in learning who you voted for? Because if you voted for either Obama, or McCain, your entire lecture is tanned with hypocrisy since both are married to coal, electric and hybrid technology, nuclear, and bio fuels, all inimical to the environment. Your self righteousness is appalling and you monumental ignorance of the issues, astonishing in scope. (One more thing, Mike, why not offer your rebuttals under your real name.) I use to do that until CD banned my original name.)
elohim,
I read your post carefully enough. I saw what you are advocating, and took no issue with much of it. Perhaps none of it, if you aren't making any allusions to electric cars being better. If that's the case, then what is your problem? Did your widdle feewings get an ouchie because some facts on electric cars, which you apparently don't dispute, are posted too close to your own reference to the subject?
What's the self- righteousness that appalls you?
What's the monumental ignorance you write of?
As for your irrelevant interest in my voting pattern, I'll indulge your curiosity for nationalistic trivia. Neither Obama nor McCain got my vote, you silly Amerikanski cyclops.
As for your suggestion that I'm Mike responding to your post under a different name, that alone has convinced me that you are even more of a buffoon than you must think I think you are. That's a transparent, unfounded and ludicrous attempt to flatter yourself. I have no idea of Moore's positions on electric cars nor whether he would ever address the transportation problem at its root, which is city design. But, I would suspect that his past ties to the plight of autoworkers and close identity with the rust belt might render his views on those issues more mainstream, if not conservative, than mine.
Now, out of the goodness of my heart, I would suggest that, if you need a truly monumental pile of evidence to convince yourself that you are a hypersensitive dunce, just click the search button up in the right hand corner of this page and type in my moniker. You'll get a few hundred comments posted by me on Common Dreams this year. If you really want to take a few hours to read them, I'm sure you'll find scores of them that conflict with the expressed views of Michael Moore, who undoubtedly has no trouble writing what he believes and publishing it, not posting it in a semi-obscure area of Common Dreams as response to a yahoo named "elohim" under "Jesus Hussein Christ."
Get over yourself.
I don't know.
Transporting hale and hearty individuals is one thing (bike, walk, mass transit fine). But we still need a way to easily and safely transport babies, and multiple children, the elderly and loads of odd-shaped or heavy "things".
Ever see a young mom struggle with a stroller, a baby, a small child, a bulky diaper bag AND a couple of bags of groceries? It can be done, sure.
Sometimes you just need a vehicle- and I'd rather see more electric cars on the road than give up totally on that idea.
Then, we just need a whole different social arrangement, too!
Moore saw fit to add the PS realizing his gushing might be viewed as naive considering Obama's act of axing Moore's Roger was just show. The real intention is to break the workers.
Why is it when viewing foreign manufacturing, the fact that healthcare isn't a financial consideration never taken into account? Instead Obama will demand more concessions from the worker rather than instituting a health plan that would at least bring us up to par with the rest of the world.
I guess his priorities were to pour our money into the master's bottomless pockets.
"The Downward Spiral is just beginning.........At up the money that GM's executives walked away with in the past 8 years. For very million dollars they received 100 employees were probably fired........Jobs were moved in the 90's to foreign countries to make room for more profits and executive pay and bonuses....
Obviously, walking away with 23 million dollars more for running a corporation into the ground is not what happens to a laborer or union worker.
Every country that has socialized medicine, has a $12,000 advantage in their labor force....If Corporations would bring back their factories and run them at cost with the executives only earning 40 times the wages of an average employee and there were a federal health plan, then this country could bounce back in less thn 5 years.
However, the way it looks now, "A New World Order" is being formed for all to live under with no labor unions allowed. (They were always lookd at as being communist by "The Power Elite".)
The Federal Reserve is a private entity giving out trillions of dollars to its friends and indebting the people of the United States.
What Michael Moore needs to do is research The links between Bernie Madoff, Larry Silverstein, and the Greenberg Family of AIG.......You all and Michael would be surprised what Israeli Banks they were using to funnel money into Israeli Organizations.......Silence was bought with a guilty plea. Who was at the top of the pyramid and shared 50 Billion Dollars?
I agree with just about everything you have written, + or - some quibbles but $12000 a year? No way. Try more like $18000 plus all the workers copays and deductibles and the constant threat of no SS and now a diseased pension, ad nauseum. Then lets throw in the trillions in tax increases at the federal, state and local level to pay for this obscenity. There's more, don't turn away...
If I were to assume to clothe myself in the dress of a seer...Try on this girdle for GM:
'Dump your workforce and legacy responsibilities, move your manufacturing to a country, say like Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, where the people will be grateful to make 50 cents a day. Then we will treat you like we treat banks, we'll give you the dupes(taxpayers)money free to do it.'
Sounds like a viable, non-transparent agreement to me. My next question is, "Just how close am I to the truth?"
From "Roger and me" to "Rick and me."
Sweet revenge or Deja Vu?
Not with a bang but with a whimper
Question ----------- How is israel and its Banksters fairing financially vis a vis the meltdown?
"Question ----------- How is israel and its Banksters fairing financially vis a vis the meltdown?"
Look at the last names of the major Wall Street CEO's and Fed bigwigs and you can bet that Israel has about a trillion of that three trillion in Swiss bank accounts.
None of this is accidental; this is looting.
My sentiments exactly!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Well put.
Yo Michael--suppossed working class multi-millionaire dude that you are--the joke's on you, because all the potential little people you count on to go watch your movies are also being fired from coast to coast. One year from now these will look like the good ol' days compared to where we are headed.
Poet
Where is the action behind the rants and raving comments or is this pure rhetoric?
I've heard people call for a general strike on several posts. What do you say... one day a week?
Which day would be the most productive and least or most noticeable to your boss?
Maybe just use a sick day here or there?
How about forgetting to pay your federal taxes?
How about a voluntary layoff or reduction in work hours to zero out your tax liability?
On your “day off” hold up a very large sign on a bridge with the sign stating, "Jail the Bankers" or 'Jail Geithner and Barnacke"?
Boycott US/Citigroup/etc (does not really matter which Bank) by pulling your money out.
Place your money in a credit union instead.
Boycott Wall Street by transferring out of your 401k investments.
Write a letter to the editor a couple times a month.
Boycott foreclosures by supporting squatter’s rights? Put your body, mind or greenbacks to work by helping those who are hurting the most.
Go out and start a garden to feed yourself and your neighbors, rebuild or get a really good used bicycle or two, do some gathering and get ready for a long hard winter and summer. We may no longer be able to live like 21st-century royalty anymore. Maybe 19th-century royalty will do?
I am sure there are plenty more tangible things that people could come up with.
Rants are just rhetoric and thus meaningless without actions to back them up.
Have fun (literally) prying your freedoms back from the banksters and the elite.
"Where is the action behind the rants and raving comments or is this pure rhetoric?"
Rants and raves are the actions and pure rhetoric is the current outcome, at least for the vast majority of disgruntled workers. For his part Moore at least puts himself out there with his comments, and they're very apt for the collective situation we find ourselves in, the commentary by Logansafi puts an appropriate depictive exclamation mark on the situation(shattered minds, for some 6th chakras). Moore points out how the collective wants to kill the king, but like in Iraq not having a replacement for Saddam, the same is true on this continent. How befuddled the situation is shows up in Moore's movement from I'll Bombya Too being a super hero to Mr. Good Wrench (we keep confusing ourselves with cartoon characters, and thus lead rhetorical dis-jointed cartoon lives)...at least he started, hopefully, a transition from Commander in Chief in our organizing myth. But as of now there is little in the way of a functional "royal" energy being coalesced in this country, with Moore's article being a fine statement of this situation, and the accompanying bleating the apt response to his call.
Did Homer Simpson really get voted 'Father of the Year' a few years ago on some poll in the US? Thank god (whatever you perceive that phenomenon to be) that the only iconic cartoon character we have here in Oz is Blinky Bill, an adolescent koala. But if he ever grows up.....
'We the People' to 'King of the World': You're Fired!
Wait a sec?!!! Didn't Michael Moore just help HIRE the newest King of the World? I mean, that's all Mike could talk about, wasn't it?
'I await the President's next superhero move'
Michael, you must have over-dosed on Kryptonite or Crack Cocaine... Is there anything too degrading that people like you, Mike, won't actually write while stoned out of your mind? How doped up on lesser of two evil drugs can one actually get?
CD, please take the poor guy to detox now and give him a 10 Step Program to recovery! (...though I'm not even sure that God himself can save Mike from his addiction at this point?) Poor guy...
Michael you are quite an interesting guy. The GM shmuck that Obama just fired is going to get $20 Million dollars for being "fired" in retirement money. In this current economic crisis I would say it is he that is getting off quite easy.
My respect for you is gone, done. Your a joke. You criticize republicans but don't go after the democrats. You made a movie about our healthcare system being in the dumps and how all the fat cats in congress were being payed by the healthcare industry to sing their tune, yet I have yet to see a letter criticizing Obama about not even bringing single pay health care to yet another one of his "summits" on what to do about things.
And not that I pay attention to college basketball that much but I am now hoping that Michigan St. gets walloped!
I know Moore has issues with General Motors, but since when did he fall in love with Barry Obomber?
I say if Michael Moore wants to indulge in a moment of I Told You So glee, let him have it. He was right about the class war being waged in Detroit and across America. His bleak pictures of Flint can be duplicated in any city now, even the flashy ones like Las Vegas.
His style has always been overblown, emotion-tugging and dramatic. That's because he's an actor and director, and that's what they DO: Drama. I personally will NOT forget the "pets or meat" woman skinning that bunny on her clothesline. Jesus.
Will there be more people in America faced with the choice of whether or not to eat the family pet? I say yes. If the US gov't had listened to Michael Moore in 1989 when he first started bitching about the upward movement of money, would we be where we are now? Probably not. So when Mike gets excited about Obama doing what he was hoping for 20 long painful years ago, I'm gonna go ahead and allow him to feel some satisfaction.
"the sight of our president having to promise that he would back every GM warranty and give consumers a bonus if they trade in their old Grand Am for a hybrid, was alternately sad, hilarious, and just plain weird. This is what it's come to: the Commander in Chief of the Free World is now Mr. Goodwrench. Jeesh."
In Europe, ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Drives Sales:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/global/01refunds.html?hpw
Hi EZE, I like this idea because it puts the money in the hands of the consumers, who will spend it. But I don't like the idea that it must be spent on a NEW car, or that we always have to have "growth" in the business world. Sustainability would be better. The guy who trades in his old clunker, which was probably paid off, now has a new debt. How about the same money going for repairs and refurbishment of your old car?
We need to learn to live within our global means. Detroit has for years been destroying or buying up patents on any new technology that would increase fuel efficiency. Washington has been busy giving tax breaks to buyers of gas guzzlers. "Planned obsolescence" has replaced quality standards.
A whole new mindset is going to be necessary if we are to continue sucessfully into the future. Maybe we could call it "enough IS enough".
Australian academic Clive Hamilton has this to say about the 'Growth Fetish', in his book of the same name ( I can't spell eponymous....hang on a minute..) 'Growth not only fails to make people contented; it destroys many of the things that do. Growth fosters empty consumerism, degrades the natural environment, weakens social cohesion and erodes character. Further...'waste and over-consumption are rife, where growth and development are out of control, where materialism and consumerism are driving out the values of community, and where pervasive (widespread) marketing deludes the masses'. Hamilton proposes a '...new, post-growth political philosophy of 'eudemonism'(pronounced with the emphasis on the long 'e' in the second syllable), a society in which people can pursue the activities that can improve their individual and collective wellbeing. Finally (for this post) 'Eudemonism requires us to focus on the things that really do affect the wellbeing of ordinary people and the processes that condition society'. Hamilton asks, and so do I; 'is personal contentment more important than money?'