When I finally got to watch Michael Moore’s movie “Capitalism: A Love Story” this month on DVD, I noticed an important error in the concluding part of the movie discussing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s proposal in his 1944 State of the Union address of a “Second Bill of Rights” protecting economic rights as I show in this video.
The clips from Michael Moore’s 2009 movie “Capitalism: A Love Story” come from the DVD available on his website at http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/capitalism-love-story/
The image of FDR’s 1944 State of the Union message to Congress that I show in this video comes from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library page at http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/address_text.html
The cover and image from Cass Sunstein’s book “The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More than Ever” comes from the Google books page at http://books.google.com/books?id=cj00Zjh1XIkC
And, finally, the image of the 1994 Reason magazine interview with then ACLU President Nadine Strossen comes from the Reason.com page at http://reason.com/archives/1994/10/01/life-liberty-and-the-aclu/2
Duration : 0:5:29
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May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@bio2020 Why are …
@bio2020 Why are you telling me everything I already know? Apparently you did not read my response very carefully.
Next time do not go on the offensive or defensive so quickly.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@mtb416 Do you want …
@mtb416 Do you want to do the math?
Minimum wage = $7.25
After taxes = About $920 month is what you take home
Now let’s see what it can buy.
Rent an apartment or efficiency = $500-700 depending
You now have $400 left for the entire month to pay for = cell phone, car insurance, food, gas, bills, health care? LOL! Forget about spending a single dollar on entertainment of any kind.
Good luck living on that. It can’t be done unless you live in sub-human conditions and lifestyle.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@bio2020 Minimum …
@bio2020 Minimum wage was never intended to be “enough to live [on].” At least that was what I was always assumed. In any case, minimum wage IS enough to ‘live on’, it is just that the level of ‘living’ I think you’re implying is impossible while earning minimum wage. It is not as if you must go to college to leave the world of minimum wage behind, so if that is your response, that is, to say “not everyone can attend college”, than I can already say I disagree as that being reason enough.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
I want to correct …
I want to correct LiberalViewer on his comments in this video. They were wrong.
This is about “minimum wage” being the fulfillment of FDR’s “Right to earn enough to provide adequate food, clothing, AND RECREATION”
On what planet do you live in, LiberalViewer? Minimum Wage was STAGNATED FOR DECADES, and only recently did it receive a TINY BUMP that is STILL NOT ADEQUATE.
Corporate profits SKYROCKET, but minimum wage has still NOT BEEN ENOUGH. One salary on minimum wage is NOT ENOUGH TO LIVE
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@halflifeproductionz The conservatives who are scared about the government going corrupt, can point the blame at the GOP, and the Democrats equally. And as far as the Tea Partiers go, I feel as though they began as a genuine movement that has been infiltrated by the elite right which serves the same purpose as the elite left, just in two wildly different summaries, and are now just an anti-liberal, anti-progressive movement. Same story, new terminology. It’s the Great Divide 2004 all over again.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
FDR was a great …
FDR was a great President, Carter was even better. Carter could have led us along the path to the Promised Land, but then the right wingers got involved.
Reagan was a senile and pathetic fool by the time he made it to the White House. Based upon his track record as gov of California, I have little doubt he would have been as much a criminal, but by the 1980′s he was just red stamping for the Bush people and in his diaper. Pathetic.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ucdconnectq the …
@ucdconnectq the conservatives are scared because what if government go corrupt and the system goes wrong, as it already is. But mostly the people (teabaggers) are angry because the faux news agenda about the whole health care bill is being shown in their biased light. These Rich pigs don’t give a about the poor and the suffering.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
Firstly I must ask …
Firstly I must ask what the “major argument” in the film is undermined? I haven’t had the opportunity to see it.
Second I cannot see the harm providing universal healthcare and social security to those not able to fully or even partially finance it themselves. I would like to see these services democratically run but not under the control of so-called ‘representatives’.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
FDR knew nothing …
FDR knew nothing about economics.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
You’re nitpicking. …
You’re nitpicking. And, even with the legislation to answer many of the issues FDR brought up, there remains no guarantees. None of these rights are considered inalienable or guaranteed. And they all depend on economic factors, unlike freedom of speech, from unreasonable search and seizure, etc…
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 I am …
@formless777 I am glad as well…
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral
So there you go trotting out the FDR conspiracy theory about Pearl Harbor, which everyone knows was actually a conspiracy by the Girl Guide Movement. Next, regardless, JFK came the closest to actually causing nuclear war. Next, Paine explodes in your face, “heist on your own petard”, lol. I think Lincoln was a good president, but not as good as FDR. And yes, Australia is a really great country, glad you aren’t here.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 Of …
@formless777 Of course less Americans died in WW2 you idiot. The Civil War was Americans Vs Americans. FDR ‘s administration is commonly thought to have had advance intelligence about the strike on Pearl Harbor. JFK used as much negotiation as possible to keep us out of war, it was a last resort… which never came to fruition. I quoted Paine, but obviously I don’t agree with him everything the man wrote. Anyway, you. Stay in Australia. If where you live is so great STFU about my country…
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral
I’ve read “Common Sense” by Paine. I find it amusing that having condemned me as a utopian you are quoting from a person who is considered an utopian and was responsible for the idea of Social Security. Most amusing.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral
What Utopia ? This utopia you dismiss is a reality in so many countries around the world that are not the USA. You have competition on the brain and assume your countrymen are in fact your enemies, and in fact, so do they, so in fact you are enemies. There are many countries in the world where this sort of thinking isn’t prevalent and corruption of this sort is not so rife.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral
FDR was way better than JFK, because unlike JFK he didn’t almost blow up the entire world over Cuba. FDR and beats Lincoln, because he ran his war more competently in every way and fewer Americans died. FDR is better that Reagan, because Reagan DID NOT stop the USSR, it was Charlie Wilson who did, and Reagan left a legacy of the Iran-Contra Scandal and the collapse of the S&L which Clinton miraculously fixed. FDR however did stop the NAZIs.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 You …
@formless777 You see, this is where you liberals fail. You have this fake Utopia built up in your minds and you think it’s achievable, but it is not. To say that society has a responsibility to take care of each individual is complete garbage. People can take care of themselves, we may need help from time to time but it is about pulling yourself up from your own two boot-straps and working hard. “All Men are created equal”, keyword “created”.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 ” …
@formless777 “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one” – Thomas Paine, from a little document called “Common Sense”. Give it a look sometime, if you can read.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 If …
@formless777 If you’re not American, then STFU! FDR best president ever? REALLY? Even better than JFK? Better than Lincoln? Clearly you’re not American…
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral
Your whole argument regarding Ponzi schemes and Social Security is totally flawed. Society as a whole has a responsibility to keep its people alive, fed, watered, clothed, medicated and sheltered. You are advocating the starvation of the 1930s in the USA as if it never existed. Government is society working together for a common purpose, and it picks the free market up and resuscitates it when it dies, which is about every 40 years.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral
But neither a Free Market nor Fair Trade in fact exist without Government. It is Government which makes trade possible by building roads, and market places and sewers, and passing laws so property is respected. Government is society working together, free trade is opportunists pulling society apart.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@ …
@TheConservatveLibral
I’m not American. Your forefathers aren’t my forefathers.
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 Free …
@formless777 Free market and fair trade is the cornerstone of a Free Society you idiot…
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 To …
@formless777 To attack the free market is to attack our Forefathers. “Commerce with all nations, allies with none, should be our motto.” – Thomas Jefferson, a REAL President of the people. Your 1984 is no match for my 1776 my friend…
May 2nd, 2010 at 5:26 am
@formless777 While …
@formless777 While I might be fundamentally wrong in comparing Ponzi schemes and SS, they have many parallels.. Like a Ponzi scheme current workers pay SS and are taxed to pay the retirement plans for retirees. As in a Ponzi scheme , there is no link from what you paid into the system and how much you will receive when YOU retire. And you are a Nazi my friend, the free market is a big lie? Yeah, you are a moron. I know democrats that would slap you for such words…