Capitalism: A Love Story
I just watched the new Michael Moore movie Capitalism: A Love Story, it is my least favorite of those he has made thus far and I found my self disagreeing with about half of the movie. He makes a lot of good points but the thing that frustrates me the most is he fails to place a lot of the blame for the housing market on Americans being stupid and getting a second mortgage or trying to live beyond their means. Although he makes good points that this is just the death rattle of bad economic policies of the last 20 years that have stripped low income and middle class families of their ability to prosper and their ability to create wealth decline.
That said people are just dumb, people buy things on credit cards, people take out second mortgages, and people get themselves into trouble (I know as I’ve done it). If people are signing documents that put their house payment real low for a few years and then 2x or 5x years later that is basically gambling that you can afford it by then, and that is dumb. Same thing with college loan, college is probably not worth $80,000 dollars in debt, you can go to a State school for a lot cheaper or find some place in state. And overall it seems the real failure in this mess is the government. The government’s job is to protect Americans but a lot of Americans loosing everything are the same jack asses who call for small government and seem to think private enterprise is good when in fact it just took their house and FFFFed them in the A.
I like FDR’s proposals and wish we had followed through, I think America needs to step it up, if socialism is a dirty weird call it the Capitalism Contract. This contract would draw a line so that Capitalism is adjust slightly towards protecting it’s participants and this helps the system because you have a base of consumers who are better off both when they are in the system and after they retire.
Capitalism Contract
– Government health care. Health care is a right and should not be provided by a company, it should be provided by the government.
– Very cheap college education. I think school should cost something, but it needs to be a lot less. It needs to be something you can afford working part time at minimum wage and paying rent. There needs to be a State school that is quality in every state that is doing medical and scientific research while educating students at a very reduced rate.
– Retirement. The dreaded third rail of american politics. This system needs improvement but I do like it. The problem I see now is not many people are saving for their retirement, I would like to see how much we contribute to retirement increased and handled on the government side of things.
– Higher tax rates on the top tax tiers. For people making over 1,00,000 a year or higher tax that at 50%. The current rate is just 35% after $357,000 and that is low if you look at history. I love business and the motivation behind creating businesses needs to be there, but at some point its not about the money, it’s about the freedom it brings and having enough money to be very very well off. For anyone making over a million dollars a year taxing the remaining portion at 50% is a fair social contract when that money is creating the system that created the opportunity for their wealth.
– Every third Friday of the month is a holiday so you get a 3 day weekend, this is only for 10 months and not for Nov/Dec. Basically would result in 10 extra holidays. I’m not sure how this one would work but I like it, and I think it would be good for Americans on the higher end of the work spectrum who already put in a lot of hours.
– Some type of government run Training Centers or at least informational website. With the speed the economy is going to shift and shift again over the coming years I would like to see a partnership with private companies that are having trouble finding qualified people. So for example with Wind and Solar and them needing people, there needs to be a national website that lists where you can receive training and where jobs are in the country. And maybe tax breaks if you move there to get a job. Not entirely sure how it would work but we need something along these lines, the people who get fucked such as when the car industry melts down need help finding a new industry to work in that is actually going to grow. Otherwise they will remain a burden on the system. I know we have a hard time finding qualified people for basic support all the way up.
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