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I really like Michael Moore’s documentaries. This one I liked the best. They are shown in only a few theaters and the TV doesn’t market them. It’s only by being a fan that one can find out such information.
I attended the second showing on the first day here in Nashville. It was only shown in the Regal Theater in the Green Hills Mall area. There were about twenty people there, all old and gray. I guess the rest of the movie attendees went to see live action: blood, guts and murder. Even Zombies are falling out of favor these days. The kids don’t care. They are too into their cell phones. Some can’t even get off the phone to buy popcorn but that’s another rave so for now I will continue with my review of the documentary.
Moore takes the premise: ” I will go to other countries and bring back ‘ the good stuff.’ No oil, no slave trade, nothing I am going to the countries that seem to have a good life. ”
He goes to Finland. The children are educated. 100% education in the country. The school lunches look like fine dining delicious meals. The kids are waited on by the cafeteria staff as they sit in around their tables. There is no cafeteria style. They eat food not pizza, or burger or frozen green peas. All food in the school is free. The high school kids speak at least two other languages. There is no homework. There are no private schools. ( Private schools take away from the society as a whole) It doesn’t matter where you live you get equal education. The USA complains, ” Taxes are too high to have such.” We don’t complain about the high cost of war, prisons or ignorance.
In Iceland the attorney hired a USA attorney to put the bankers in jail that caused the ruin of their country during 2008. That’s right he hired a USA attorney who prosecuted the crooks in the 1980’s over the Savings and Loan Scandal. The only bank to survive the collapse was bank totally run by women. ” We don’t understand hedge funds, derivatives etc. so we didn’t buy them.” Their faith in the system is restored. The economy is better than ever.
In Norway he interviews the father of one of the people killed by a bomb. The father says, ” No I don’t believe in the death penalty. No, I will not be brought down. No, I will open up.” The contrasts of how other countries treat their prisons and prisoners is like evil and practical. They are practical. We are evil. The open door in the USA says that over 80% of prisoners go back to prison. This costs money and more lives. Not so in a society that truly believes in ” no cruel and unusual punishment” like beating prisoners, solitary confinement and locking them up like wild beasts.
There is no illegal drugs. Addicts are treated not locked up. The price of drugs goes down, crime decreases and the number of addicts is manageable. They treat drugs as sickness not criminal.
Italians get eight weeks paid vacations. They are astounded that USA workers barely get two weeks. The CEO’s of companies listen to their workers and put them on their boards.
When the movie was over I was sad. We truly do not practice what we preach as all these countries and all these people who he interviewed said, ” We took the words from your constitution.”