Michael Moore Proposes Gov't Takeover of Autos; Good Riddance to Capitalism

     With President George W. Bush on his way out of office and a Democratic president soon be sworn in, some have wondered where the outspoken voices on the left would direct their anger. Try core American values – like free-market capitalism.

     Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore, who once said his religion was affirmed because a hurricane’s landfall was timed to be on the same day as the opening of Republican National Convention, expressed his rage toward the heads of the Big Three automakers on CNN’s Nov. 19 “Larry King Live.”

     According to Moore, the best thing for the government to do would be to take over the automakers, similar to actions former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took during World War II.

     “[W]e can’t let all these people lose their jobs because of the bad decisions, the stupid decisions made by the management of these auto companies,” Moore said. “So I think what has to happen here is that Congress needs to pass some legislation, and our president-elect needs to do what Roosevelt did.”

     “When Roosevelt came in and when World War II faced the country, Roosevelt said to General Motors and Ford, 'You''re not going to build cars anymore,’” Moore said. “’You're going to build airplanes and tanks and guns and the things that we need for this war because we have a national crisis.’ And so General Motors had to do what Roosevelt told them they had to do.”

     Moore later expressed his frustration over a parts plant that closed down in his home state of Michigan, showing pictures of the plant’s demolition while attacking the “few people at the top to get filthy rich.”

     “Well, these were taken, actually, by The New York Times about a month or so ago,” Moore said. “They’re tearing down the factory, finally, where he worked, where tens of thousands of people worked over the years. And it was kind of an emotional moment just being there and thinking about all that we’ve lost in this country, how we’ve allowed a few people at the top to get filthy rich.”

     “And I mean those guys that were testifying today, one of – the Ford chairman is making something like $22 million a year and his company lost $2 billion last year,” Moore said. “The GM chairman is making $15 million a year. His company lost $39 billion last year. And he's rewarded with a $15 million payout. I mean this is – this is just absolutely insane.”

     Moore pronounced the death of capitalism because of what he declared to be the selfish interest of a handful of auto executives.

     “But I’ll tell you what it really has proven to me, Larry, is that these guys, after all of that stuff they’ve been telling us all these years about go capitalism, free market, free enterprise, they don’t believe in any of that,” Moore said. “They don’t believe in free enterprise or a free market.”

      “They want – they want socialism for themselves,” Moore added. “They want a handout and a net for themselves – to hell with everybody else, but give it to them. And I think, really, what we’re seeing here right now with them, with the banks, we’re seeing the end of capitalism – the end of capitalism as we know it. And I say good riddance – it hasn’t helped the people or the planet.”

     Socialism and anti-free market rhetoric have been a persistent theme in Moore’s work. He has been a crusader for socialized health care in the U.S., especially with his 2007 documentary “SiCKO.” Moore depicted the health care systems used in Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the communist nation of Cuba as what the U.S. should have – an expensive taxpayer-funded health care system.