MovieChat Forums > Inside Job (2010) Discussion > Some good points and some bad

Some good points and some bad

posted 13 years ago by smoogy_smooger
1 reply | jump to latest

A good point of the movie is to show that the discipline of economics is moot and ideologically biased. The economics departments just produce front line troops for the big corporations. A bad point is that it makes "greedy" individuals the source of the problems. It fails to see that there is an inherent error in the system that is causing this kind of things. With increasing profits caused by ever increasing productivity thanks to new technology, and with real wages held at constant levels, there is an excess of money among those who own means of production (i.e. people who don't work but who magically earn money from the work of other people). An increased supply of money makes interest rates go down.

Essentially it comes down to let's say a worker making 10 hamburgers a day, while getting paid 5 and borrowing 3 to survive. If he were to claim 9 hamburgers the owners would just call the cops/military and have him arrested, there are lots of unemployed to employ in his place. This is capitalism in a nutshell.

Unfortunately, the ever repeating and increasing crises of capitalist society gets explained by mistakes made by individuals. That way capitalism is incapable of handling its own crises. Every attempt at a solution just ends in yet another even worse crisis.

No crisis is caused by regulation vs anti-regulation issues, the crisis is of capitalism itself.

[–] LLOwens 13 years ago

Your comment reminds me of the documentary Food, Inc. which used the analogy of how a multinational corporation found a way to sell corn below the cost of production which drove farmers in third world countries out of business to the detriment to their self sufficiency--because even with their cheap labor--no human can compete against a machine--not even if these laborers had the strength and endurance of Paul Bunyan--LOL! And the unjust part in all of this is when regulators finally decide to crack down on these huge multinational food corporations for unethical/illegal behavior--illegal immigrants who are employed by these corporations take the heat while execs get a slap on the wrist in order not to disrupt manufacturing and profits as well as for the preservation of power.

And the most wrenching part about capitalism is that driving force behind it is indifferent to societal and environmental cost which often outweigh the difference in cost of producing things in a more safe and ethical manner. Case in point: the recent explosion of a coal mine in West Virginia which killed 29 workers. Experts are now saying this accident could have been prevented and because of negligence of this magnitude Massey Energy will have to pay a record $210 million in penalties. In this day and age there is no excuse for such tragedies--in this case the nations' deadliest mining accident in over four decades--which was a direct result of corporations putting profits ahead of the safety of their workers which create moral hazards. Just imagine--their safety violations were so flagrant (i.e., allowing buildup of highly explosive methane gas in the mine, use of worn out cutting equipment which caused the spark that ignited the explosion, presence of highly combustible coal dust) that a low tech solution--a canary--could have saved the lives of these men had they been willing to take precautions.