I just watched Michael Moore's latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story" (released in 2009)and was surprised by plenty of his research but by nothing more than President Jimmy Carter's televised speech from the oval office on July 15th, 1979 which became known as the "Crisis of Confidence" speech. (I was working nights in the IBM memory chip manufacturing line clean room that summer between years in college and somehow missed the entire experience.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCOd-qWZB_g&feature=related
Here's the backstory from one of the speech writers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/opinion/15stewart.html
What a missed opportunity for America. The Reagan years ensured that, which the movie goes into in plenty of depth.
In general, another thought-provoking masterpiece from Moore. It makes me feel a bit guilty about wanting to cut and run to New Zealand or China if none of Highest Wind's grant opportunities come through this year. But just a little. I think the majority of Americans will require a disaster of World War Z proportions to shake them out of their comfortable but non-sustainable lives.
Very interestingly, on that YouTube page is this video farewell speech from President Eisenhower in 1961 warning America about the rise of the "Military Industrial Complex". As someone hoping for some of the funding from that complex, I understand the importance of the DoD to innovative startup companies, (if the f**kers fund us), but feel Ike may have been on to something considering the current US military budget.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/01/information-is-beautiful-military-spending
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