22 August 2008

Warren Buffett is an ignorant old man

Last nite I experienced the year's biggest docu-"extravaganza", the one night only airing of the documentary "I.O.U.S.A", a rather light-headed and fleeting docudrama about the ballooning national debt.

For all anyone knows from watching this film and the insipid commentary afterward by the likes of Warren Buffett and co., things aren't so bad! All we need to do is tweak something here, raise a tax there, convince the politicians to do the right thing, and all will be well. Mr. Buffett was particularly adamant in this regard. In his world, the pie will always increase, the sun will always shine, the grass will always be green, and all the animals in the forest will dance together in perfect harmony.

As Dr. Evil would say, riiiiiiigght...

Take Mr. Buffett with a grain of salt. He will be dead in ten years. He will not have to reap the whirlwind. He does not have to care about what happens in the long run, or even the short run. He could retire to Bermuda tomorrow and be set for life.

Not to mention that it is glaringly apparent that Mr. Buffett suffers from the first stages of dementia. This is the only possible explanation for his ludicrous comments.

The film was hardly a start toward the truth of the matter. It was fluff, full of nice graphs and music, something out of the Michael Moore school of fooling the people. With the exception of a cameo appearance by Ron Paul, nothing here even begins to state how the problem lies with the existence of government, that government's existence entirely assures that national bankruptcy will follow, that politicians can never be trusted (ever!), that there is as much a crisis of debt and morality in the private sphere as well as the well documented public sphere.

No one even conceived that our future obligations could disappear tomorrow by simply pulling the plug - by the stroke of a pen, erasing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all the rest from existence. What is made by man is malleable and impermanent.

The film's best moment: footage of Congressional hearings, when Dr. Paul completely demolishes Alan Greenspan and all his dark works.

And then they had the audacity to interview the undertaker (Ayn Rand's fitting nickname for Greensham) himself, and actually permit him to lecture us. Lecture us!!

I paid $12.50 for this junk. I want a refund.

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