Michael Moore
Oscar and
Emmy-winning director
Posted: March
6, 2011 02:53 PM
America Is Not Broke
Speech delivered at Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, March 5, 2011America is not
broke.
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that
you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life
your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot.
The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your
hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from
the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the
uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom
benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout"
of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155
million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call
that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest
about what you know in your heart to be true.
And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of
men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy,
would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that
we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite.
Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic --
and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely
helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.
I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in
school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to
graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It
grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good
wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs.
It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then
grows a new generation of inventers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists
and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And
that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state.
But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of
taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and
the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to
keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it:
recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy.
The crash they created cost us millions of jobs. That too caused a
reduction in revenue. And the population ended up suffering because they
reduced their taxes, reduced our jobs and took wealth out of the
system, removing it from circulation.
The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. It's
part of the Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade:
America/Wisconsin is broke, Iraq has WMD, the Packers can't win the
Super Bowl without Brett Favre.
The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just
that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that
sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes
to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some
of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for
hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them.
But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated
communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines
running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent
that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have
done two very smart things:
1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have
expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of
the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of
the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day – this is America,
where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have
conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a
poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in
Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can
become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over
and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do
is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be
rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep your
head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure
to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some
day.
2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want
to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when
they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in
September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went
into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi
scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of
dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy
straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts.
Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and
homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of
everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more
for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"
The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain
their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing
each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had
played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and
millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).
Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to
share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant
know as the working people of the United States of America. Right now
the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those
who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and
that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone tells us America is
broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and
ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who
have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us.
But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy
back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the
Corporate States of America. The United States of America!
So how do we get this? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt
here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and
remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave
his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government
run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and
morality and humanity.
Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last
best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as
Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the
floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have
done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning.
The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been
content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be
satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas
to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more – something
more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They
had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down
so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about
simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on
the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so
he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much
some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie
pilots flying people here to Madison. But he's stopped trying to get
better pay. All he asks is that he doesn't have to sleep in his car
between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have
sunk. The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a
year. They wanted to take away his sleep. They wanted to demean and
dehumanize him. After all, he's just another slob.
And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But
trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement
that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all
knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon
us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were
caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act
surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have
come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather.
"Why are they all standing out there in the cold? I mean there was that
election in November and that was supposed to be that!
"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you...?"
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass
of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship
ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of
ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the
rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold
all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one
unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!
Madison, do not retreat. We are with you. We will win together.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/america-is-not-broke_b_832006.html
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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