Michael Moore Gets It Wrong
By John Stossel
Michael Moore has been working on another documentary. This time, he's taking on capitalism:
"The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn't have enough wealth. They wanted more -- a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money."
How ridiculous is that? The wealthy, and everyone else, almost always decide that they don't have enough wealth. People ask their bosses for raises. We invest in stocks hoping for bigger returns than Treasury Bonds bring. "Greed" is a constant. The beauty of free markets, when government doesn't meddle in them, is that they turn this greed into a phenomenal force for good. The way to win big money is to serve your customers well. Profit-seeking entrepreneurs have given us better products, shorter work days, extended lives, and more opportunities to write the script of our own life.
On Thursday, Moore announced the title of the movie: Capitalism: A Love Story.
It's a title I might have picked to make a point opposite of what I assume Moore has in mind.
Moore also fails to understand is that it was not "capitalism" run amok that caused today's financial problems. In reality, it was a combination of ill-conceived government policies and an overzealous Federal Reserve artificially lowering interest rates to fuel a bubble in the housing market. Then it was government that took money from taxpayers and forced banks to accept it.
Moore ought to understand that, because he makes a good point when he says his movie will be about "the biggest robbery in the history of this country - the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions."
That is indeed robbery. It sure doesn't sound like capitalism. |
