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Now joining us, Michael Moore, director of Capitalism: A Love Story
and a couple of other ones you might remember,
Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, Roger and Me, just to name a few.
Michael, welcome to The Young Turks.
Thank you. Don’t forget Blue Hawaii too, with Elvis.
All right. So the DVD is coming out for Capitalism soon.
My question is, you know, I saw the movie,
obviously we agree on a lot of things including the huge flaws in the system as it currently exists,
but do you think that capitalism is fundamentally flawed and we need to change it entirely, if so, to what?
Yes, I do believe it’s fundamentally flawed because I don’t think that in the 21st century
the big decisions that need to be made should be based on profit.
It should be based on what we need as a society and what the world needs.
And when I say that, I don't mean that I don't think people should be able to earn money
or do well if they work hard or have a great idea or whatever, that's not what I'm talking about.
The kind of capitalism that we have now is a Three-Card Monte game, and it’s rigged,
it’s rigged against the working person.
And I just think that until we decide that we have to get away from that, and it’s a more democratic economy,
in other words economic decisions that are made by our elected representatives
as opposed to Wall Street, the banks, the Fed, etc., etc.
But how do we do it? How do we do it? How do we switch to that system?
Well, the first thing we have to...
Actually, no switch will occur until we remove money from politics.
Agreed.
So we would have to start a movement where people will be running for Congress and for Senate
and signing a pledge that states that they will not accept, in their first run, you know, for election,
more than $25 or $50 per person.
And then after that, when they get in there,
their number one priority is to remove the funding of our elections from individuals who have the most money
and have it be federally funded like it is in most democracies.
So you think that campaign finance reform is the critical part of this, and...
Yeah, because nothing else will happen. I mean, look at right now. Here we are, guys.
We’re a year and a half away from the crash.
A year and a half since the big crash, not one single regulation has been put back in place.
Not one rule.
And so Wall Street, they're back to doing the crazy derivatives, they're back to the credit default swaps,
they're back to all the crazy, loony-bin, casino stuff that got us in the mess that we're in,
and Congress has not done one single thing to stop it.
You know, in the movie you talk about Chris Dodd, and of course, he’s the head of the Finance Committee,
and now he’s retiring, but that might be a worse thing, Michael,
because now he’s got a payday coming just a couple of months from now.
That’s got to give him a lot of incentive to not be so tough on the banks, isn’t it?
Well, yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it.
Yeah. Because, I mean...
A boy can hope.
Because part of the problem is the implicit bribe that these guys are getting.
The treasury official just left yesterday, Dave Munchus I believe is his name,
and he’s got a great lobbying gig now with the Cypress Advisory Group.
So it’s not just the campaign money they take, it’s not just their advisors that leave, but themselves,
they leave at some point and they get huge money.
So how do we ever fix a system that’s broken, especially given that it appears that Obama has no intention of doing so?
Well, you want the honest answer?
Yes. Definitely.
It’s not going to get fixed. There’s going to be another crash.
The commercial real estate bubble hasn’t burst yet, that’s going to burst.
The credit card debt is so huge right now it’ll never be repaid. That’s a house of cards ready to fall.
So the crash of ‘08’s going to look like coming attractions, and we’re in for a much, much worse time.
That’s what I honestly feel, but you don’t want to hear that from me, do you?
I mean, I’m only the guy who said that there weren’t going to be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
and that we were being lied to,
and I’m the guy who 20 years ago made his first film saying that General Motors was a piece of crap company
that was going to slide down the hill and bring us all down with it. So don’t listen to me.
Part of the problem, Michael, is if it does crash, and I have the same fear as you do, right,
is that then the right-wing media’s going to step in and say hey listen, you know what?
It was too much government and it was too much regulation and it was the progressives who are the cancer, etc., etc.
Ooh! No, I'm so afraid of the right wing saying that! Ooh!
Typical Dems. Typical Democrats. That’s the way the Democrats think.
Ooh! Oh, they’re going to say bad things about us! Oh, we'd better not do too much. Ooh!
You know, I tell you, I tell you, these Democrats are disgusting wimps and wusses and weasels, you know?
Get some spine. This is why I actually admire the Republicans. They at least stand for something.
They at least have the courage of their convictions.
They get elected to office, they come into town, and they go, get out of my way!
There’s a new sheriff in town. This is the way we’re doing things. Get out of here!
And then they do it, you know? I mean, what they do is crazy, but dammit, they are good at it.
We should take a page out of their book.
I couldn’t agree more with that, so to finish that thought,
if you were, for example, Van Jones, how would you have responded to Glenn Beck?
*** off! That’s what I would’ve said!
But again, you mentioned Glenn Beck, and of course,
he’s the guy that, I think, called for my removal from the planet Earth, so...
So it’s someone you’re familiar with, so apparently you had that refrain ready.
All right. Michael Moore is the director of Capitalism: A Love Story. It's coming out on DVD.
Thank you so much for joining us on The Young Turks. We really appreciate it.
Hey guys, thanks a lot. I love listening to you, I’m serious. Thanks.
Thank you.