An Unusual Love Story

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I have not yet seen "the most important and urgent political film of our time," as the Huffington Post describes Michael Moore's latest effort, "Capitalism: A Love Story."  I have seen some of Moore's other work, and I thought "Sicko" in particular was thought-provoking.
 
But the problem that the filmmaker faces in pitching "Capitalism" is that Moore himself has made tons of money.  While rephrasing a question from Wolf Blitzer, Moore asked somewhat facetiously (at 2:15), "Why am I against capitalism if I've done so well?"
 
Good luck following Moore's response to his own question.
 
The position in which Moore finds himself as a result of this movie is not unlike that of someone who attended public school, gains some degree of success and then uses that success to call attention to the problems facing public education.  "You turned out OK," someone could say. "Why should we listen to your criticisms of the same system that led to your success?"
 
The answers to these kinds of questions need to be straightforward.  In the case of Moore, to what does he credit his success, and why can't others emulate his example?
 
As a young professional concerned about the future of our country, I think we ought to be honest about the opportunities Americans have to improve their lives, as well as the behaviors that make grasping those opportunities more likely. Here is some relevant information from a study done by the Treasury Department, as reported by the Wall Street Journal:
 
The Treasury study examined a huge sample of 96,700 income tax returns from 1996 and 2005 for Americans over the age of 25. The study tracks what happened to these tax filers over this 10-year period. One of the notable, and reassuring, findings is that nearly 58% of filers who were in the poorest income group in 1996 had moved into a higher income category by 2005. Nearly 25% jumped into the middle or upper-middle income groups, and 5.3% made it all the way to the highest quintile.
 
Of those in the second lowest income quintile, nearly 50% moved into the middle quintile or higher, and only 17% moved down. This is a stunning show of upward mobility, meaning that more than half of all lower-income Americans in 1996 had moved up the income scale in only 10 years.
 
That certainly sounds inspirational to me. But my guess is that the stories of people who stay in school, work hard and gradually improve their lot in life do not typically adapt well to the big screen.    
 
(Image by Nicolas Genin; Michael Moore at the 66th Venice International Film Festival)
 

 
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