Michael Moore is a "shrewd
capitalist," making millions by preaching socialism. Moore's latest movie,
"Capitalism: A Love Story" was backed by some of the richest people in America.
Co-producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein (named in the opening credits) received a
$490 million private placement through Goldman Sachs.
In front of Goldman Sachs the
film shows a Brink's truck, which is comical for those in on the joke, with
Moore announcing: "We're here to get the money back for the American people." He
could set an example by re-distributing his film profits to Goldman Sachs for
the American people -- or the poor he claims to champion. A socialist he may be,
but with a purported $50 million net worth, apparently not that much of a
socialist.
Under socialism Michael Moore's
personal greed would never be satisfied. My wife, who grew up in the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), had a friend who served seven years in prison
for possession of an anti-establishment (anti-socialist) manuscript. In
principal, no different than Moore's anti-establishment (anti-capitalist)
screed. Capitalistic countries allow criticism but socialistic ones don't.
Despite honeyfuggling his audiences while pied-pipering them down the
road to serfdom, Moore cannot fathom how under supposedly "evil capitalism,"
"The U.S. has the richest poor people in the world." A fact explained by Walter
Williams under the same title.
Moore seeks to "re-distribute"
other people's wealth -- never comprehending that wealth is earned, not
distributed. Someone has to produce every day the things we consume before they
can be consumed (or re-distributed) and the inability of socialism to produce
basic necessities is why it's a failure in every country where tried.
The tragedies and heartaches
Moore showcases in his film can be traced not to capitalism but to government
interventions in our economy. From housing problems to banking problems, they
all result from government policies and political favoritism. In conflating
capitalism with Democrat and Republican politicians selling their souls he
deliberately mischaracterizes capitalism.
In all of history, only
capitalism has created an ever-increasing standard of living for the majority of
people. This is accomplished through profits, for only profits can tell
businessmen how to allocate resources and what millions of consumers want most
urgently and are voluntarily willing to pay for. Only profits can tell
businessmen whether consumers value more urgently things like dental care or
pre-paid funerals, a new roof or a new kitchen. Millions of things no
bureaucrats, no matter how smart, can hope to determine.
People often forget capitalism is
both a profit and loss system. Auto industry losses told industry executives to
stop wasting resources building Studebakers, Edsels and Saturns. Capitalism via
consumers rewards winners: Toyota, Mercedes and Ford. Government rewards losers:
GM, Chrysler and their unionized voters (at taxpayer expense).
Consumers, by buying or
abstaining from buying, determine what is to be produced, in what quantities and
quality. Contrary to what Moore -- the son of an autoworker -- believes, the
wages of autoworkers are not determined by unions but by what consumers are
willing to voluntarily pay for automobiles.
Corporations cannot pay workers,
unionized or not, more than consumers are willing to pay for the product.
Because each of us is both a producer and a consumer -- seller and buyer -- we
want the most for the labor we sell, and want to pay the least for what we buy.
This is to make our income go as far as possible. When acting as consumers by
buying or not buying, we determine which businesses prosper or fail and the
earnings of all workers.
Moore clearly thinks pilots
should be paid more than passengers are willing to pay for airline tickets. He
apparently believes people (rich or poor) with bank deposits should forfeit
their savings accounts to people who don't make their house payments. Moore is
an ignoramus, clueless as to where banks get deposits from which to make home
loans.
Moore's fatal conceit is wanting
to grant more power to government to control our lives and reduce our freedoms.
In deciding who gets what, there is only private control (through persuasion) or
government control (by coercion). With private control consumers vote everyday
with every penny they spend, a true economic democracy. With government control
consumers vote every two, four or six years (often against a gerrymandered
stacked deck).
Moore and others who believe
capitalism and businessmen are evil should be mindful that to the best of our
knowledge, neither Socrates, nor Christ, nor Joan of Arc were put to death by a
businessman. (See: F.A. Hayek, "The Road to Serfdom" and "The Fatal Conceit, The
Errors of Socialism").
Moore ends his occasionally funny
harangue with a newly discovered video of FDR calling for a new Bill of Rights,
the "right" to a job, the "right" of farmers to high food prices, the "right" of
consumers to low food prices, the "right" to a home and the "right" to medical
care.
Many politicians following FDR
have echoed those "rights." Why? Because it's much cheaper to give rights than
to give actual jobs, food, housing and medical care, etc. A right cannot be a
right, however, if it imposes a burden on someone else. If someone else has to
provide the right, well, we used to call that slavery.
It is free market capitalism that
provides the cornucopia -- things that kings and queens and princes and
potentates throughout history never imagined in their wildest dreams. It is free
market capitalism that provides "average" Americans not with the empty "rights"
and promises of socialism but real automobiles, televisions, telephones,
refrigerators, central heating and air-conditioning, air-travel, unparalleled
medical care and an abundance of all types of food in all types of weather.
Things no genie of magic ever granted the richest of the rich 100 years ago.
It's capitalism, the only moral
economic system, not governments (nor unions), Mr. Moore.
God bless capitalism!
Schnaubelt, president of Citizens for
Private Property Rights, has been a commercial real estate broker
for 39
years and was a San Diego City Councilman from 1977-81.
