I’m going to be chatting with Michael Moore tomorrow, the high-profile documentary director of Bowling For Columbine, Farenheit 9/11, Sicko and Roger And Me. His latest project is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray on March 9th (Capitalism: A Love Story).
I thought I would extend the opportunity to readers of this blog to help me come up with the questions for our interview since after all, this blog is written for you! Please submit your questions in the comments section and I’ll try to ask as many as I can.
Housekeeping: I’ve randomly drawn 4 winners for the Ufile giveaway. The winners will be contacted by email, but are also listed here: Congratulations to Christopher Hylarides (box copy), Brian C (box copy), canuckfamily (online voucher), and Antoine (online voucher)!
Mr. Moore,
I listened to your interview on Howard Stern a couple months ago and when he pried into your personal finances a bit, you stated that your total net worth was under $1 Million (USD). Given the number of hit films you have and their requisite income, your age, real estate equity and other assets you’ve acquired over the years, this just seems unfathomable.
I realize you stated that you don’t invest in stocks and other risky assets, but I still find that hard to believe. A typical working class guy making a measly 50K/yr often amasses 7 figures over a lifetime with some frugality and steady savings habits. With a reasonable mortgage as you stated and no extravagant spending, this just doesn’t seem plausible. Can you confirm that this is in fact the case and if so, do you attribute it to any particular situation? i.e. losing money to inflation in low yielding investments, excess spending, major investment losses earlier in your life, lousy financial advice somewhere along the lines, or otherwise?
No disrespect intended, but I was shocked to hear this (loved the interview itself by the way).
Q: How can Mr. Moore campaign against capitalism when its most perverse affects so often involve government intervention? Isn’t the problem bad companies getting bailed out by governments (often in the name of saving jobs or the economy itself), thereby continuing their existence and preventing better run companies from entering the market? Isn’t the problem government and crony capitalism?
Lehman Brothers failing was wonderful as a poorly run company is gone. If GM and Chrysler failed, Toyota, Honda, etc (who all build cars in North America) and other companies would be able to continue.
Q: Have you considered doing a film about the pitiful state of schools?
Q: It seems that alternative forms of energy such as solar and wind are taking unreasonably long to get off the ground. Have you considered investigating what is behind the delay?
Congratulations. This should be an excellent interview.
What do you believe is the greatest impact that one of your movies had on getting something changed? Can you talk about that impact, please.
My questions for Mike are all over the board, but hopefully you will run with some of them.
Q. What is your favourite book?
Q. Will you make “Capitalism a Love Story” available to download on bittorrent? I believe you encouraged downloading of your previous films.
Q. Do you believe home owners in the US who used their home as an ATM, refinancing to withdraw equity or speculating in hot markets are equally responsible for the housing market collapse?
Q. Should there be a limit on the salary/stock/benefits a person like a CEO, hedge fund manager, or celebrity can make? Should anyone make over say $50 million a year?
Q. Do you think the Olympics is a corrupt corporation? Do you support them, or maybe like me you think the multi-billion dollar price tag could be spent on something better socially?
Q. What’s your view on inflation? Do you think the government or powerful elite use it as a method of taxation on the lower class, effectively stealing the value of the money they manage to save?
Q. Where do you see the US 10, 20 and 50 years from now? You have a lot of faith in the nation, but with the huge debt the country owes do you still see it as the world super power forever?
Hard Hitting Questions for Mr. Moore:
Why do you wear that ball cap all the time?
What is your favorite hockey team?
Explain why you love America, and this is why you do what you do.
What about the diet high in starch promoted by the agricultural industry causing the obesity and diabetic epidemic? See Richard Bernstein’s “Diabetic Doctor’s Solution”: insulin causes fat, carbs from starch and sugar increase insulin, high insulin causes diabetes; Dr Michael Eades’ “Protein Power” and his Health and Nutrition blog; Gary Taubes, award-winning science writer, “Good Calories, Bad Calories” masterpiece on hundreds of years of science showing no evidence of saturated fat/meat/protein being bad for human nutrition and much evidence of carbs causing obesity. The low carb diet allowed me to easily lose the sudden weight gain and high blood sugar of diabetes without needing diabetic medication.