Belle Ng
Mrs.Cary
English 12 Pd.5
3 November 2016
Title Filmmaker Michael Moore explores corporate greed, the global economic meltdown, and their disastrous effect on American lives. As he travels from the Heartland to the financial epicenter of New York and the halls of government in Washington, Moore delves into the price the country pays for its love of capitalism. Michael Moore demonstrates the failure of Capitalism as an economic system in America. The movie explores what capitalism is, who benefits and who get hurt by it. The film clearly shows how capitalism was hijacked by special interests and how it decimated the middle class, making it so much smaller while at the same time enlarging the poor underclass. It can be seen how at the same time that Wall Street and the banks grew, society’s devastation was soon to follow. It is clear in the film that the poorest, uneducated, and hardworking middle class are the most likely people to be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous corporations such as the home loan industry, and many others business out there.
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Special interest groups sent their agents to Washington to change the politician’s heads so that they could stop the regulations that were in their way. Without the regulations those rich corporations would become even wealthier. Michael Moore shows us how profit makers and special interests can control the seats of the government. He demonstrated this through many examples throughout the film. A first example that Michael Moore shows us at the beginning, he gives us a glimpse about the content of his movie by showing robberies taking
This documentary is written, directed and produced by Michael Moore and is about the social repercussions of capitalism as well as corporate and government issues that conflict with the basic needs of people and their families. Moore takes a liberal humanistic look at the consequences of General Motors closing down several auto plants in Flint, Michigan in the late 1980's and what can happen when a city is almost completely reliant on a single industry that shuts down or moves away. Moore also looks at the failure of Flint city officials to reverse the effects of the closures with trends like Auto World which had little effect (Moore, 1989).
America is often referenced with the idea of the “American Dream” and the “Land of Opportunity.” For centuries, people have flocked to America in hopes of a better life and greater opportunity. However, if they are searching for equal opportunity, America is not the country that they will find it in. Success in the United States is limited to the opportunities available to the individual, and without equal distribution of opportunity, financial success is not reachable to those in the lower classes of American society. Notable educators and authors such as Gregory Mantsios and Diana Kendall have brought the problems of American society to attention, claiming that the rich are getting richer and the poor continue to remain poor. In his essay, “Class in America – 2009,” Mantsios discusses the myths that revolve around class in America, and then refutes these myths by describing the realities of the society Americans live in. Similarly, in her essay, “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption,” Kendall writes about the realities of the classes in America while advocating for a change in the way the media portrays the class issues. The United States was founded on the belief of equal opportunity for all individuals, and many still believe that equal opportunity still holds true today. Despite the way media masks the class issues, empirical evidence and research show that equal opportunity does not exist in America due to
Henslin explains in chapter eleven that in the United states the capitalism that we have is state or welfare capitalism (Henslin, 2015). There is know such thing as a whole country being capitalists. Therefore, state capitalism means “private citizens own the means of production and pursue profits, but they do so within a vast system of laws designed to patent the welfare of the population, and not incidentally ensures that the government can collect taxes.” Moore’s documentary explains why capitalism is hurting our country in so many different ways. But big CEOs and business owners do not want to hear what the middle class people have to say because it is the big companies like that, that are taking everyones money and work.
Life in America began to undergo great economic and social changes during the 1980s under the Reagan Administration. During this period of time, stagflation began to distress the US economy, leaving millions of Americans to fall victim to homelessness and poverty. The unemployment rate had reached its highest peak since the Great Depression, creating a major crisis for low-income families and other individuals concerning living conditions. The introduction of Reaganism into society primarily focused on reducing the growth of government spending through the modulation of federal income tax and reduction of government regulation to diminish inflation. Despite all attempts for economic recovery, the US struggled to bounce back from the 1970s recession and in time led to the significant rise in urban poverty. Uniquely, an American film director from the 1980s by the name of John Carpenter produced a science-fiction film, They Live, that served as a powerful and eye-opening depiction of his own personal views of Reaganism (Reaganomics). He essentially depicts our world to be controlled by powerful elites who have created a repressive society that we are unwilling brought to live and build in. He also clarifies how the majority of Americans during the 1980s were focused primarily on materialism and how an individual’s “success” was measured by the amount of money they possessed. Carpenter’s major criticisms of 1980s America included the impact of consumerism in America as well as
The film portrays the government in a very negative light and shows how the senators have no real influence on lawmaking. Mr. Smith’s struggles as a senator gave the impression that the government functions completely on bribery, blackmail, and lies. The film gives a very strong message about the lack of democracy in American government and politics, along with the ignorance of the American people. Mr. Smith portrays the average American citizen: he is naïve, has faith in the democracy, and is ignorant
nation's great cities and as oil refining rose so did the popularity of the automobile. With these
Paul Krugman, author of “The Death of Horatio Alger,” evaluates the declining social mobility in America. He proposes that the decline in social mobility is causing the rich to continue to get richer and the poor to continue to get poorer. Krugman was inspired to discuss how this would result in the shocking loss of the American Dream, after he read a Business Week article that made him fearful of the considerable and drastic decline that would destroy the livelihood of many Americans. Krugman’s purpose was to make his audience; those of lower socioeconomic status, aware that the American Dream they hoped to achieve would soon become extinct. He creates a fearful and negative tone, in order to grab his audience's attention and inform them about the economic downfall. Krugman strongly conveys his message not only through his harsh tone, but by appealing to pathos, incorporating rhetorical questions that create a fearful mood, and appealing to logos to make a credible and sound argument.
Since the time we are born we are fed the lies of capitalism. We are taught that capitalism hurts no one and that capitalism is the only way. Johnson and Robbins have some very influential ideas about capitalism. Johnson writes about the complexity of privilege. He also addresses why some privileged people do not feel privileged through the matrix of capitalist domination. Robbins gives us a background on how privilege became what it is today. He addresses the anatomy of the working class by drawing attention to how they were mobile, divided, powerless, and anxious for a revolution. Through Johnson and Robbins’ eyes we can begin to see how the world is not the one we were taught it was.
The documentary film “Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream” directed by Alex Gibney is about the wealth gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. The documentary compares the access to opportunities of residents of Park Avenue both on the Upper East Side and in the South Bronx. The documentary includes interviews with a series of people: a doorman at 740 Park Avenue, journalist Jane Mayer, Yale University Professor Jacob Hacker, Berkeley Professor Paul Piff, and Republican advisor Bruce Bartlett. The documentary makes a compelling case that inequality exposes democracy and that the victims of inequality include not only those who find themselves in the rapidly expanding underclass, but the American dream itself.
This “middle-class nation” is struggling to support all those who live in its borders and the misconceptions about wealth are vastly overrated. Furthermore, the idea of wealth and stability is incorrect, and there is a very sharp contrast between the rich and poor in the country. As the richest twenty percent of American hold ninety percent of the total household of the total household wealth in the country, those at the bottom have managed very poorly and suffer to get through the days.
A good depiction of the interaction between the president and interest groups was seen in The American President. In this movie a special interest group, the GDC, sent a lobbyist, Sydney, to get a bill introduced into the senate. The process they went through, convincing the president to introduce the bill if they got enough support from congressmen and then seeing them gain support from the congressmen, was very informative. This movie also helped set a complete picture of the way the president works in the political system.
Michael Moore’s latest film, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” presents a critical look at the administration of George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism. In this film Moore investigates the rapid growth of the United States government and its trend of trampling the rights of individuals, and the corporatism that is spawned out of the close ties between big government and big business during wartime. Michael Moore may not convince all audiences, but is successful for its factual accuracy in which the evidence spoke for itself, and at the same time proclaimed Moore's artistry in transposing and splicing scenes to create impressions that supported his allegations and opinions. Michael Moore has employed two main techniques in an
America is not great like everyone thinks, not all thing is perfect, I guess. In the film, the best well-known case is Walmart, Moore mentioned about Walmart took out over 350,000 life insurance policies on rank and file associates. Especially, LaDonna’s death earned one of the richest corporations in the world an extra $81,000 and Walmart didn’t offer a penny to help to cover her medical bills and funeral which over $100,000. We call that case as “Dead Peasant Insurance.” It is just more about the want of the wealthy to get wealthier at the expense of all
A small clip from the movie Network provides a glimpse of a currency-dependent society in America when CCA chairman Arthur Jensen explains to Mr. Beale through means of effective persuasion the importance of currency. In the novel Ordinary People, a simple family that appears to be perfect and complete on the surface, divides after the death of their son. Both texts reflect the desire to rely on money and the materials of the world - and as a result replacing love, family and morality.
Michael Moore used comical tactics as a way to appeal to his audience in this piece of literature. Michael Moore’s argument is that capitalism is destroying the nation’s economy rather than helping to develop it. The poor are suffering, while the richer are getting richer. The arguments that Moore used may not be considered tangible by all, but he definitely did have the evidence to support his argument. Michael Moore purpose was to expose this ground breaking issue of the dominance of corporate America through video. He used the web source as a source to get his message across because he knew the internet would be accessible to many people. Moore in this film used the different elements of reasoning to identify the message he was sending