What's Michael Moore Talking About?

by John Stossel - October 14th, 2009 - Townhall.com

Moore declares capitalism evil, but he's never clear about what "capitalism" means. Considering how much time he spends documenting the cozy relationship between business and government, I thought he might mean "state capitalism."

But then he uses the term "free market" as a synonym for what he doesn't like.

What does the free market have to do with businesses manipulating government and strong-arming Congress for bailouts? Moore properly condemns both.

What does he want instead of "capitalism"? He's coy about that.

I have ranted for several years about the crony capitalism that has left Wall Street aligned with the socialists as enemies of free enterprise. A large percentage of so-called conservative writers constantly defend Wall Street with a knee jerk defensiveness that clearly indicates they really are themselves pretty light weight intellectually.

Free enterprise, capitalism, works for the betterment of society by assuring that there is competition for the consumer's expenditures. When there is no competition, there is no free enterprise. Yet Wall Street, through mergers and acquisitions, constantly works to eliminate competition and create monopolies. It has thus become a modern truth that Wall Street is the enemy of capitalism and free enterprise. It is so obvious that even an idiot could see it. So why can't our "conservative" writers?

I think that the problem conservatives have with Michael Moore is that he is pretty smart about these things. He has brilliantly confused not just the left, but also the right, because he sees how gullible the right is in defending practices they should be criticizing. Why are conservative writers not denigrating Wall Street practices? Moore uses that obvious hypocrisy to his advantage.