Sadly our local cinema chose not to feature Michael Moore's documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. Last week I had the pleasure to view this fine documentary at a theater in South Bend. The film showed examples of unregulated capitalism when greed and corruption is allowed to run amok. One of these is the egregious practice by some corporations of purchasing what is known as Dead Peasant's Insurance. This allows corporations to secretly purchase life insurance on an employee in the hopes that the employee will die young, thus giving the corporation a tax-free windfall. Oftentimes the family will be left with a mountain of medical bills and funeral expenses while the corporation laughs all the way to the bank.
Another story showed a family in Peoria, Ill., whose home was being foreclosed on. This unfortunate family was dealt a final indignity of having to dispose of their lifelong possessions due to a misunderstanding of eviction time parameters. The bank gave them a check for $1,000 for disposing of their own belongings because they had not time or money to store them.
Near the end, the documentary showed footage of FDR calling for an economic Bill of Rights. Among these rights were the right to earn enough to provide for adequate food and clothing, the right of every farmer to earn a decent living, the right to adequate medical care, the right to a decent home, the right to a good education, and the right for business to compete fairly. Imagine what a more just, equitable, and humane society we would have, had these ideas been acted upon.
Instead the keys to the kindgdom were given to Wall Street and special interests resulting in a massive redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle classes to the ultra-wealthy. What we have now is a near feudal system that allows for 1 percent of the population to control 95 percent of the wealth.
I am often puzzled by the accusations of socialism by conservatives. If we are going to be apathetic and content to live in this land of aristocracy in which we find ourselves, we should have a broad safety net for the tens of millions among us who live in poverty. People should not be sick, homeless, and hungry in America. A good dose of democratic socialism would do a world of good.
